
I was driving to the supermarket after the end of a long on-call shift for my job, when I wound up behind this innocuous Hyundai. Never really had use for my dashcam until tonight.
We’re heading into Warwick on County Route 1A when a black dog crosses into the road, then a white dog. The black dog makes it, the white dog gets hit by the Hyundai who doesn’t brake until the last possible moment.
Now that doesn’t make them a scumbag, accidents happen.
This does.
The car’s owner drove off. I couldn’t hear anything over my radio, but according to the homeowner I stopped in front of, they heard the hit, they heard the dog scream. It raced away from the car but had a pretty good limp and a bloody paw. Looked like the passenger’s side of the car hit it, and it may or may not have gotten caught by the front tire before it flipped away from the car.
While the dog huddled near a backyard fence, I called the police. After they arrived I started pulling off my dashcam video to see if I got enough, thankfully I did. The officer told me the video of the hit very clearly showed what happened.
Eventually we tracked down the owner, the dogs apparently weren’t supposed to be outside (the white dog had no tag on it!!!), and after talking to the police they took the dog to a local emergency vet.
The police left to talk to the driver, and I haven’t heard anything yet. Seriously folks, if you hit an animal – especially someone’s pet – stop and get help. Either call the police or try to locate the owner. This was someone’s family member – I hope it survives OK.