If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?

Does it matter if the driver was speeding, drunk, not paying attention,
and didn't stop, but continued driving?

I ask because of a sitution that occured with my uncle a few weeks ago.
I don't want to give too many details but I'd like to hear what others
think about situations like this. I don't plan on sharing this info
with him unless I need to. Right now, he's having problems dealing with
this and he's looking at the situation the wrong way.

Any opinions on the subject would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

Sometimes accidents are just that - *accidents*. Guilt is a natural feeling,
but after a while it needs to be put in its place. Finding who is to blame
will only make matters worse. Realizing tragic accidents sometimes happen
may make him feel a little less guilty. I'm so sorry.

-Sharon

wrote:
If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?

Hmmmmm. Well, I think I'd have to say the owner. Why was the dog allowed
in the road? Did the owner not have him on leash? If not, did he not
have a perfect, instant recall on the dog, or was he not watching the dog?

In any place where there are roads that cars actually drive on, dogs
should be on leashes unless they have an absolute, positive,
no-matter-what 100% recall. That means they can be instantly called off
of squirrels, rabbits, deer, etc. Me, I don't have that so I keep my
dogs on leash around roads.

Does it matter if the driver was speeding, drunk, not paying attention,
and didn't stop, but continued driving?

No. None of that would have been an issue if the dog wasn't in the road.

It sounds like a tragedy happened. And it's very sad, and we all make
mistakes we deeply regret later. But I think the human being deserves
the blame for this one. Not that it will bring the dog back, but part of
learning from mistakes is owning up to them.

wrote:

If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?

Does it matter if the driver was speeding, drunk, not paying attention,
and didn't stop, but continued driving?

I ask because of a sitution that occured with my uncle a few weeks ago.
I don't want to give too many details but I'd like to hear what others
think about situations like this. I don't plan on sharing this info
with him unless I need to. Right now, he's having problems dealing with
this and he's looking at the situation the wrong way.

Any opinions on the subject would be helpful and greatly appreciated.


How awful. I know you'd like to make your uncle feel better by
spreading the blame around, but if the dog was out on the road when he
or she was struck it was the dog's owner's fault. It doesn't matter if
the driver was drunk, speeding, not paying attention; the dog should
never have been out on the road. The responsibility for the dog's
safety lies with the owner.

Kathleen

I am in CT and all dogs must be leashed at all times in public
areas....however, it is a crime to not stop and report a car vs.
domesticated animal accident...in other words if a driver strikes a dog or
cat they must stop and call the police to report it....

wrote in message
oups.com...
If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?

Does it matter if the driver was speeding, drunk, not paying attention,
and didn't stop, but continued driving?

I ask because of a sitution that occured with my uncle a few weeks ago.
I don't want to give too many details but I'd like to hear what others
think about situations like this. I don't plan on sharing this info
with him unless I need to. Right now, he's having problems dealing with
this and he's looking at the situation the wrong way.

Any opinions on the subject would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

BK wrote:
I am in CT and all dogs must be leashed at all times in public
areas....however, it is a crime to not stop and report a car vs.
domesticated animal accident...in other words if a driver strikes a dog or
cat they must stop and call the police to report it....

But that still doesn't make it the driver's fault that somebody let
their dog wander into the road. The location of the dog is the owner's
responsibility.

wrote in message
oups.com...
If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?

Morally, the owner's, for not having the dog on a leash.

Legally, the driver could be at fault, depending on the state. But it would
depend on the circumstances of the incident.

But the dog should not have been in the position where it could get in the
road in the first place, especially if the owner was present.

The owner.

About 20 years ago, our first dog was killed by an oncoming car when he ran
out into the road.
It was completely our fault since we did NOT have him under our control.

Even so...it was a difficult and painful way to learn how to be a
responsible pet owner.





wrote in message
oups.com...
If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?

On 12 Oct 2005 21:38:25 -0700, wrote:

If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?

Does it matter if the driver was speeding, drunk, not paying attention,
and didn't stop, but continued driving?

I ask because of a sitution that occured with my uncle a few weeks ago.
I don't want to give too many details but I'd like to hear what others
think about situations like this. I don't plan on sharing this info
with him unless I need to. Right now, he's having problems dealing with
this and he's looking at the situation the wrong way.

Any opinions on the subject would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

The dog owner is responsible for keeping his dog out of the street.
The driver is responsible for driving sober and safely. It sounds
like this whole thing happened from a bad combination of people not
doing everything they could. In lawsuits over accidents, juries are
allowed to apportion fault by percentage and not have it be all or
nothing in most states for exactly this reason. Much of the bad stuff
that happens isn't a hundred percent one side's fault while the other
is blameless. As far as who is more at fault, I can't say from what
little info you have given. As far as your uncle's healing,
apportioning fault is not necessarily what is going to help. If he's
feeling guilty because he feels to blame, guilt is only good for
helping to signal things one needs to be more careful of in future,
beyond that, it is destructive. If he's feeling angry because he
blames the other person, anger is only useful as an early stage of the
grieving process, but staying there will be destructive even if the
anger is justified. I think if he's having problems dealing with it,
grief counseling could help. It's not just human death that tests the
limits of people's emotional reserves.

--
Paula
"Anyway, other people are weird, but sometimes they have candy, so it's best to try to get along with them." Joe Bay

wrote:
If an owner is outside with their dog at night and the dog goes in the
road, gets hit by a car and dies, who is at fault? The owner or the
driver?



Yes, I'm replying to my own post.

I just wanted to give an update as things have gone terribly wrong.

My uncle is very upset over this incidence and has practically been
stalking the driver of the car. He doesn't know who the person is yet
but he's trying to track him down. He knows the license plate number,
the vehicle make and model, and that the driver comes by every night
around a certain time (probably going home from work). No one knows
what my uncle wants from this guy as he already said he wasn't
interested in a lawsuit. We're all afraid he's going to get arrested or
sued himself. He strongly believes that the driver is at fault but the
rest of us think otherwise. He's more concerned in getting justice for
that dog than what's going to happen to his family when he (most
likely) gets himself in trouble.

Here's exactly what happend (from an objective point of view):

A few weeks ago, my uncle and his dog were outside at night. The dog
went into the road without my uncle's knowledge and a vehicle hit and
killed the dog. The vehicle hit the dog so hard that the license plate
came off and the dog was found 10 -20 feet away into a field. The
driver didn't stop and when the police questioned him later, he claimed
that he had thought he hit a possum. Around here possums usually weigh
around 10 pounds or so while the dog weighed 113 pounds.

No one knows if the driver was drunk, not paying attention, and/or
driving over the speed limit. There is no law (that we can find) that
says a driver must stop if they hit an animal. However, there is a law
that says a driver must stop if they hit someone's property; they must
contact the property owner. A dog (or companion animal) is considered
someone's property. There is also a law that says a dog is not allowed
to be off the owner's property unless it's controlled by a leash (or
similar).

I'm trying to find websites that say who would be liable but I can't
find any good ones. Most people think the owner is at fault if the dog
is in the road. We're thinking that if we show that to my uncle, that
maybe he'll just let this whole thing go. OTOH, he may go into an even
deeper depression (which he suffered from prior to this). My aunt is
just really upset about this, she's afraid something bad is going to
happen. Unfortunately, therapy just doesn't work with my uncle. No one
has ever been able to get through to him about anything. He's always
right and everyone else is always wrong.