What a sad tragedy at work

[enRo]

My driver and I were going down a somewhat busy road with a posted 35mph speed limit around 7:30am this morning as part of the routine route we run. So were going westbound and about 500ft ahead, we see a small black lab run across the street to go take a wiz on a telephone poll. First thing my driver says was "Man, hes gonna get hit if he crosses that road again". Sure as ****, when we approached the dog, he darted right in front of us... luckily, my driver was going slow enough where the big rig came to a complete stop... as the dog darted in front of us, a large box truck, going at least 45 was going eastbound towards us. All i see is the box truck thump twice and continue off... and my driver looks down and says "Aww man that poor dog got hit." I said "Stop the truck." So as I jump out I can here the dog yelping (such a sickening yelp at that) and see the dog dragging himself to the side of the road with one of his front legs (his back legs and torso was dragging on the ground)... he couldnt make it to the side of the road so I picked the dog up carefully and placed him on the sidewalk... the dog stopped yelping and the look that dog gave me will stick with me for quite a while. I started petting him saying "It's gonna be alright buddy". I look at his legs and 3 of them are fractured, his jaw was all bloodied up, and the front leg that wasnt broken had roadrash down to the bone. His head was still moving around, just mustve been in the state of shock. So I call the cops and told them about the situation and they said they would send a squad car and animal control right away. And suddenly the dog's head dropped, laying there like a stiff board and started panting. He gave about 5 quick breaths and stopped breathing. I look down the road and see the box truck has not returned... So an old woman came out of her house that was in front of the incident and kinda froze, and had a sigh of relief and she said "I have a black lab, but mine is right here at the door, I dont know who's it is". A minute or so goes by, and sure enough, the box truck has turned around and parks in front of our truck. The driver gets out, walks over to my driver and said maybe two sentences. He started walking away and I yelled "Didnt you see him on the side of the road? You shouldnt have been going that fast in the first place, cuz now we have a dead dog here". The guy shrugged his shoulders, and said "I'm sorry", and got back into his truck and left. I grabbed the license plate number. A cop calls me back right after that, and said that he has a box truck currently pulled over, I read off the plate number and told him that the guy just left the scene after giving a lame apology. As I hang up the phone, two houses down a mother comes running out of her house with a 20 or so y/o son and yells the dogs name (which was Buddy, what a coincidence) and starts hyperventilating. The son starts crying, then two little kids come running out, they start crying. It was such a bad situation, I felt really really bad for them. The cop came, stood there for 5 minutes and let the family mourn, and asked if they wanted him to call animal control or are they gonna care for the dog themselves, which is what they replied with. Then the son picked up the pup and walked away with him, and the mother seemed to calm down just a little bit, and asked me what happened. So I gave her the rundown, and she just completely lost it. She cried "Thank you for trying to care for Buddy". Everyone left the scene and that was that. I have never felt that bad for the dog, ive never really felt that bad for a person, but a dog is like a family member, and to see someone run him over, and just shrug his shoulders about it really pissed me off.

The dog was only a year old.

[79CamaroDiva]

:cry: I hate stories like this. Someone should run the guy over and see how he likes it. People will say its the families fault for letting the dog get out, but animals will be animals, they sneak out, despite our best efforts to keep them inside or in a fenced in area. And unfortunately, no matter how smart we think they are, they don't know any better. My cousin had her kitten bolt out of hte house and get run over, a guy I work with had his cat get run over, my best friends (emily, a lot of you know her) german shephard chased a rabbit into the road and got run over. They're just animals, and the pain is unbearable when something like that happens because you always feel like its your fault.

[BonzoHansen]

It never shocks me when someone is so uncaring. They get theirs eventually.

It also never shocks me when someone shows compassion above & beyond. Good job Noah, in such an upsetting situation.

[Tsar]

:( sad...

[JL8Jeff]

I hate seeing loose dogs running around. I've helped grab a couple of loose dogs in our neighborhood and put them in our fenced in backyard until we could find the owners. Last thing I want to see is exactly what you saw happen.

-

[jims69camaro]

The dog was only a year old.

kudos, man, for comforting the dog in its last moments. the family should've thrown you a reward. hell, i wouldn't doubt it if in a coupla weeks you get a check in the mail from them (might take them a while to find you). you can't fault them for letting it slide by, as they just lost a family member. i don't care how old the dog is, if he is part of the pack, he is part of the family (dogs think of it in terms as being part of the pack, since they are pack animals).

i would've had to have been restrained if someone who just ran over a dog had shown me such callousness. he would've left with a few bumps and bruises for sure...

[BigAls87Z28]

Very sad....very sad man. Feel bad for the family. Sounds like the dog was a big part of the family. Hate to hear, much less see stuff like this.

[enRo]

kudos, man, for comforting the dog in its last moments. the family should've thrown you a reward. hell, i wouldn't doubt it if in a coupla weeks you get a check in the mail from them (might take them a while to find you). you can't fault them for letting it slide by, as they just lost a family member. i don't care how old the dog is, if he is part of the pack, he is part of the family (dogs think of it in terms as being part of the pack, since they are pack animals).

i would've had to have been restrained if someone who just ran over a dog had shown me such callousness. he would've left with a few bumps and bruises for sure...

I was really close to knocking the guy out after he shrugged his shoulders about it. But Im not in it for the reward, it was the right thing to do. Im sure nobody else would have stopped, as most people didnt, they would just drive by and watch me carry the pup to the sidewalk. From what I understood someone left the gate open and in which case, when they let the dog out in the morning, he walked out of the gate and onto the street.

And I agree Melissa... dogs are animals. They will sniff their way out of an open-gated area. There are a couple dogs in my neighborhood that didnt leave a fenced area when someone left a gate open, but it's because they were trained, mature, older dogs... this pup was only a year old and didnt know any better.

[SupermanX24]

i had a 4 month old puppy run out into the street and get hit. He seemed to have died on impact, so I hope the poor guy didn't suffer. And yeah, some people just don't care, it pisses me off a whole lot too. I was only 11 at the time so I didn't have time to think about getting the plate off the van that hit em.

[baddest434]

what a horrible story :-x. what actually can the police charge him with? i'm not being sarcastic just serious.

kudos to you noah for doing the RIGHT thing.

[lastcall190]

:cry: I hate stories like this. Someone should run the guy over and see how he likes it. People will say its the families fault for letting the dog get out, but animals will be animals, they sneak out, despite our best efforts to keep them inside or in a fenced in area. And unfortunately, no matter how smart we think they are, they don't know any better. My cousin had her kitten bolt out of hte house and get run over, a guy I work with had his cat get run over, my best friends (emily, a lot of you know her) german shephard chased a rabbit into the road and got run over. They're just animals, and the pain is unbearable when something like that happens because you always feel like its your fault.

+1 on all that... animals don't reason like us, as well trained as they might be, some dogs have ADD and if they see a bag getting blown away by the wind they'll chase it. Stand up job stopping and taking care of and doing whatever you could. Hell I know I'd appreciate it.

-J

[firebirdcrazy]

I lost my boy Odysseus a Siberian huskyOct 15th 2005 the same way. My nephew opened the back gate letting him loose and got hit by a speeding car. My neighbors got him to the vet but before I got there he had passed. I was devistated and still today I miss him dearly. When I came back from Iraq he was the 1st thing I got as a pup and he helped me through my ordeal of returning to a normal life. Every now and then he visits in my dreams. I now have Odysseus II though he will never replace my 1st boy he helped me get somewhat over it. Now I have him pretty much dramatized when it comes to crossing a street. He has gotton away a few times but wont cross the street and sits on the corner lol. Thank goodness. Its a horrible thing and I dont wish that on anybody to go through. The times my boy has gotten away was always because of someone else ignorant to the fact a dog is in the house and leave doors open as they come in after being told. FYI the guy that hit my boy was caught and ticketed for speeding because a PD was not far behind. Bigdaddykane I am glad you stopped and helped. You have a big heart and I am sure the family of the dog were greatful that he didnt die alone. I hope others try to do the right thing.

[deadtrend1]

That sucks man. I know how you feel.

Over the winter a dog a few houses down got hit by 2 cars in front of my house. Sad thing is it came near my yard earlier and I tried to get close to it, and it ran off. A hour later I look out my window and see the thing get hit, and a car behind that ran over it again.

Jen and I ran out and she tried to comfort it but it was too late ... :(

[enRo]

what a horrible story :-x. what actually can the police charge him with? i'm not being sarcastic just serious.

They arent gonna charge the guy with anything. They wont even have a case. The officer said it would have to be filed to a federal jurisdiction or something like that. He said if the guy didnt come back, it could be considered a hit and run.

[Knipps]

:( I couldn't even imagine if that was my dog. Right now we have her trained where she knows the boundaries of our yard without a fence but we're all able to walk her without a leash. There's always the thought in the back of my head that I have to keep an eye out on her. Noah, you did a great thing, kudos man.

[jims69camaro]

They arent gonna charge the guy with anything. They wont even have a case. The officer said it would have to be filed to a federal jurisdiction or something like that. He said if the guy didnt come back, it could be considered a hit and run.

that's not my understanding at all... i think it's the law that if you hit an animal you at least have to make an effort to find the owners and call animal control. failure to do that can lead to a sizable fine. at least that's how i understand it. of course i am going to go off and see if i can find any mention of it in the law books...

[madness410]

you did the right thing...i feel bad for the dog...and i want to knock out the dude that didnt care

[LS1Hawk]

:cry: That's such a horrible story. But I give you BIG props Noah for doing the right thing. At least the dog's last memory was of someone trying to help him. The hardest thing I ever had to do was put my dog down, and when it was being done I went in and held him the whole time through because I wanted him to know I was with him till the end. I don't think I ever cried so hard in my life.

[SteveR]

Man that ****ing sux. There are way to many ******** on the road and at least you had the self control not to knock his ass out and run him over with his own truck to show him what it feels like.

[ZeroCool8891]

i hate people like that not giving a s**t what happen or what they did. but yes a dog is like a family memeber i know how it is, i lose my 6 year old german sheperd to cancer last weeked, its been hard for me and my parents to get over it but we have a 17 month old rottie, so we are getting bye but we will always remeber her.

[bubba428]

wow dude, thats really sad. I just seen a stray Scottish terrier running around while I was walking my dog he walked in front of a few cars that luckily stopped. I got a hold of the dog and had him taken to be checked for an electronic tag. but damn man...i'd have tried to make that other truck driver stay till the cops showed up

[bandit88]

It's nice to know that there are other people that will comfort a dog in this horrible situation. I give you big kudos with staying with that dog!

I feel that they have feelings too and should be treated as such.

[slugger27nj]

Ughh, that's so sad :( You absolutely did the right thing staying with the poor little guy. That's my worst fear because we live on such a busy road. Even though we have a fenced back yard, we never leave them outside by themselves. Baley jumped the fence once when we were just fostering him, but thank God he went towards the woods and not the road.

[Slow 88]

That sucks!! But good job out of you!! It's refreshing to see that there still are people with hearts out there!!!!!!

[Frosty]

I hate reading stories like this....I'm a huge animal lover.

Kudos to you for doing the right thing man.

[jims69camaro]

the problem with the way the law is written is that it does not specifically state that a dog is "other property", as seen here (http://www.deadlyroads.com/laws/new-jersey-hit-and-run-laws.shtml). however, him returning to the scene of the crime does not absolve him of this other responsibilities as laid out in the law. if you accept that a dog is "other property" and that immeasurable damage has occurred, then he was guilty of a third degree crime and punishable by a fine of between $200 and $400, or be imprisoned for a period of not more than 30 days, or both, for the first offense. it's not hard to prove that a dog is worth more than $250, which is the only dollar amount used to gauge whether a person "should have known" about the accident and that ignorance cannot be used as a defense.

it's sticky, only in that "dog" is not spelled out in the law. everything else, as in the fact that a dog is worth $250, that he knowingly left the scene of an accident and that, although he returned, he did not abide by the letter of the statute in offering his information to the owner of the dog or a police officer, is in line and he should have been charged with a crime, to the very least as a 4th degree offense.

i'm kind of disappointed with our laws, in that they spell out some things but leave other things out, so that things like this are not addressed. i don't think anyone would argue that a dog is worth $250, and by that fact alone the owner's property was damaged, to an extent that it serves no purpose (the dog is dead). i would hope that someone look into this further and possibly offer up another reason why the law is written the way it is and perhaps correct the wording. a lot of our laws need to be revisited.

[1972LT1]

Dogs are worth more than most people....at least a dog won't try to F you over for a dollar. There's a reason they're called man's best friend.

[cdubbzz]

just a dog

[Fleetwiz]

I manage a bunch of commercial drivers, I would have an "issue" with the driver of the box truck. IMO he should of been in control and been able to stop...espiecally if he saw your truck come to an unscheduled stop in the middle of the road. Anyway you did the right thing and tried help.
Some guys are just a**holes. If he worked for me he won't much longer.. usually that type of driver has "other" problems as well.
It's more than "just a dog" it was some ones pet.

[jims69camaro]

it was someone's pet.

that, of course, is the argument. if it was a raccoon, you wouldn't think twice about mashing the pedal after hitting it.

[Fleetwiz]

Agreed, I work for a Pet Supply Distribution Co. If tzar's has the company name of the truck I would make a call to his boss and let him know that he "intentional" hit the dog.
Moron's like this piss me off.

[sweetbmxrider]

that sucks. poor pup

[bubba428]

just a dog

and your a douchebag....congratulations

[jims69camaro]

and your a douchebag....congratulations

no need for name-calling. we knew what he was the minute he typed those words and hit "Submit Reply"...

[SStealth2k]

Thats sad, And atleast you stopped and helped I would be pissed if someone hit my dog and just left. The only positive thing out of this is that atleast it wasn't a kid that he hit. Maybe he will learn to slow down and pay better attention to the road now

[79CamaroDiva]

Thats sad, And atleast you stopped and helped I would be pissed if someone hit my dog and just left. The only positive thing out of this is that atleast it wasn't a kid that he hit. Maybe he will learn to slow down and pay better attention to the road now

doubtful. he's got the same mentality as the a**hat above. "just a dog" how pathetic.

[BurninrubberGT]

wow man that really sucks, thats a horrible story, the truck driver didnt even give a crap.....kinda sounds like emmans road, thats a 35 but people usually do about 50 through it

[cdubbzz]

no need for name-calling. we knew what he was the minute he typed those words and hit "Submit Reply"...

dog on leash = no dead dog

don't hate b/c I sound harsh but I've been that guy who hit/killed a dog without being on a leash (the owner only steps away from the roadway)...and that thought still sits with me to this day

blame the dog owner first before the driver

[jims69camaro]

dog on leash = no dead dog

don't hate b/c I sound harsh but I've been that guy who hit/killed a dog without being on a leash (the owner only steps away from the roadway)...and that thought still sits with me to this day

blame the dog owner first before the driver

you don't need to sound harsh to explain how you feel. saying it's "just a dog" is a phrase that you knew would enrage people, especially those who care for animals. i own a dog. i put up a six foot stockade fence because i felt the four foot chain link fence wasn't enough of a deterrent. even so, i watch him like a hawk when he's outside because i don't want to have to go through the heartache of having him get hit by a car.

to say "just a dog" to people who clearly care about animals is not just harsh, it's assholish. you knew the reaction you would get. that's why they call people trolls. you explained a lot more in your subsequent post - why not start things off like that so people don't think you're a troll?

[mystictealLT1]

+1 dont say some rude **** like that and not expect to get some comments back at you,like the rest of them said real d-bag comment

[Frosty]

dog on leash = no dead dog

don't hate b/c I sound harsh but I've been that guy who hit/killed a dog without being on a leash (the owner only steps away from the roadway)...and that thought still sits with me to this day

blame the dog owner first before the driver

Nice edit. That first comment was not appreciated.

How do you know the dog didn't jump the fence?

[79CamaroDiva]

As was already stated, there was a GARBAGE truck stopped in the road for NO APPARENT REASON. Even if there wasn't a dog in the road, the truck alone would generally make most people slow down so they don't hit the men working. Slowing down would then lead you to see the DOG in the road. the dog is not just a dog, thats somebody's puppy. As I stated in my first post, dogs will be dogs. Even the most well trained dogs get mischievous sometimes. No matter how old the dog is, its a lot like having a toddler around. What if it was someones kid who just happened to sneak out? Or a kid who ran out in the street to get a ball? Any residential area is 25-35 mph. Should be easy enough to stop, especially with the pre-warning of having a garbage truck stopped.

[Jam]

:violin: NOOOOOOO!

[98tadriver]

it really sucks that had to happen. The guy shouldve been paying attention and not speeding, but where were the owners? not watching the dog? no leash? is there a leash law in nj? or is the leash law more of a local ordinace thing?

if the dog is part of the family, perhaps they should have been paying more attention to it. i dont think they would let their kids run across the street.

I had a similar situation where i hit a yellow lab that was 1-2 yrs old. however, i wasnt speeding, and did everything i could short of going into a ditch to avoid him. he just darted out so fast. both wheels got him and he didnt suffer. there were 3 houses there, i went house to house until i found the owners, apologized, picked the dog up out of the road, and buried the dog for them. i felt bad for hitting it, but the dog was across the street with no supervision. the lady tried her best to get me in trouble for its death. my front bumper and some other things on the t/a got messed up. it was like 1300.00 worth of damage. (full coverage and 250 deductible ftw) the 9yr old kid held up pretty good until i started filling the hole in, then started crying. i knelt down beside him and put my arm around him. i told him i was really sorry, i tried everything i could to avoid him, and asked him to forgive me. dunno if they ever got another dog http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c219/98tadriver/poop2.jpg ill give you a hint, thats not mud

[Knipps]

I was really close to knocking the guy out after he shrugged his shoulders about it. But Im not in it for the reward, it was the right thing to do. Im sure nobody else would have stopped, as most people didnt, they would just drive by and watch me carry the pup to the sidewalk. From what I understood someone left the gate open and in which case, when they let the dog out in the morning, he walked out of the gate and onto the street.

And I agree Melissa... dogs are animals. They will sniff their way out of an open-gated area. There are a couple dogs in my neighborhood that didnt leave a fenced area when someone left a gate open, but it's because they were trained, mature, older dogs... this pup was only a year old and didnt know any better.

Reading FTW. Who has their dog on a leash in their own backyard?

[jims69camaro]

ill give you a hint, thats not mud

you went above and beyond with the burial. that was a nice thing to do. if she had known what the law was on the books, she might have given you more to deal with, but i am glad that it didn't go down like that. you sound like a decent guy who wasn't given any choice, not some shoulder-shrugging neanderthal that was speeding with a box truck. big, big difference there.

p.s. you did everything by the law, anyway. you contacted the owner and gave them your info, stayed around long enough to bury the animal. there really isn't anything more you could have done, and i think if it had gone to court, you would have come out unscathed.

[98tadriver]

you went above and beyond with the burial. that was a nice thing to do. if she had known what the law was on the books, she might have given you more to deal with, but i am glad that it didn't go down like that. you sound like a decent guy who wasn't given any choice, not some shoulder-shrugging neanderthal that was speeding with a box truck. big, big difference there.

p.s. you did everything by the law, anyway. you contacted the owner and gave them your info, stayed around long enough to bury the animal. there really isn't anything more you could have done, and i think if it had gone to court, you would have come out unscathed.


thanks jim. god forbid that happened to any animals of mine, i would want that person to do the same thing for me.

[WayFast84]

Reading FTW. Who has their dog on a leash in their own backyard?

When I had my westie we used to hook a real long leash to the clothes line and let her run around. We also had a full fenced in backyard. She got out a few times, but we did everything to keep her in the back yard, We ran chicken wire on the bottom of the fence, put a better lock on the gate.

The worst feeling in the world is having your Dog running around loose when you did not purposely let him/her.