[DemolitionRed]

Originally Posted by Cherie

What if it had been a larger animal like a cow? Would they have run that down or slowed down the traffic and put up warnings etc?

They would of got a gun man in to shoot it. Its the same with a horse. If you break down with a horse onboard a lorry on a motorway, under no circumstances can you remove that horse from one vechicle into another. The only option your'e given is to have the horse trook removed with the animal in it or you have the horse destroyed.

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Northern Monkey

Like this?

that is definitely a cow themed bra, but its for human women.

i meant a bra for their big heavy udders on a cow.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

They would of got a gun man in to shoot it. Its the same with a horse. If you break down with a horse onboard a lorry on a motorway, under no circumstances can you remove that horse from one vechicle into another. The only option your'e given is to have the horse trook removed with the animal in it or you have the horse destroyed.

Not always it would seem

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surr...orway-10031162


This loose horse on the M23 forced highway officials to close part of the motorway on Thursday evening.

The animal escaped onto the carriageway at around 4.40pm impacting traffic between junctions 9 for Gatwick Airport and junction 8 for the M25.

It is believed the horse re-appeared after an initial period of absence.

Two lanes were closed in both directions first before both roads were closed completely when the animal was being placed into transport.

A spokesman from Highways England said motorists faced delays of up to 90 minutes northbound and ten minutes southbound as a result.

He said: "We stopped both carriageways with no traffic flowing at the moment.

"We had to get the horse into the transport."

On Twitter, the roads agency said a vet had been called to assist at the scene.

[Cal.]

Dogs>Other Animals>People

andthatisthetruthofthematter

[Beso]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

They weren't wild horses, they were Travellers horses, they tend to put them in any field they fancy

or take them from any field they fancy.

[DemolitionRed]

Originally Posted by Cherie

Not always it would seem

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surr...orway-10031162


This loose horse on the M23 forced highway officials to close part of the motorway on Thursday evening.

The animal escaped onto the carriageway at around 4.40pm impacting traffic between junctions 9 for Gatwick Airport and junction 8 for the M25.

It is believed the horse re-appeared after an initial period of absence.

Two lanes were closed in both directions first before both roads were closed completely when the animal was being placed into transport.

A spokesman from Highways England said motorists faced delays of up to 90 minutes northbound and ten minutes southbound as a result.

He said: "We stopped both carriageways with no traffic flowing at the moment.

"We had to get the horse into the transport."

On Twitter, the roads agency said a vet had been called to assist at the scene.

It very much depends on the police at the scene of the incident, whether they can get the animal off the road or can actually close off the road. What I'm saying is, the police have the right to shoot and kill any animal if its deemed a danger to the public.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

It very much depends on the police at the scene of the incident, whether they can get the animal off the road or can actually close off the road. What I'm saying is, the police have the right to shoot and kill any animal if its deemed a danger to the public.

That would be a given as a last resort

[Livia]

Major mistake and a PR nightmare for the police. As far as I can see there were no animal control officers, not even a police dog handler present. The dog was probably terrified and I'm sure an animal control officer would have had a better handle on what to do, especially considering the "solution" the two patrol officers took.

[joeysteele]

Creeps for me, they would surely have to stop any traffic,if there was very much anyway, to remove the dead Dog.
Shocking this story and heads would roll for me for sure.

[Kizzy]

Aw the poor thing but yes I agree it was the right thing to do, my daughter was involved in an accident that could have been really nasty if not for her quick reactions and those of 2 other drivers when some loon stopped dead in the middle of the fast lane of the M62 due to a deer.

[user104658]

I dunno. YouTube a couple of motorway smash videos and it's fairly obvious why they would play it safe. At those speeds, swerving to miss a dog could very easily be a fatal error for multiple people.

Hindsight is all very well and good, with more time to stop and plan perhaps they could have done it differently, but in the heat of the moment and with lives in very real danger, I think they acted quite sensibly and decisively. Sentiment aside... It simply isn't worth risking people's lives in that way to rescue a dog.

Flip it on its head: imagine these officers had continued to try to catch the dog, or had left or waited for colleagues to close the road, and in the mean time an car with a young family (or multiple cars) are involved in a fatal collision. People then (I hope!) would be saying that the officers should have removed the hazard as quickly as possible, by any means necessary.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

I dunno. YouTube a couple of motorway smash videos and it's fairly obvious why they would play it safe. At those speeds, swerving to miss a dog could very easily be a fatal error for multiple people.

Hindsight is all very well and good, with more time to stop and plan perhaps they could have done it differently, but in the heat of the moment and with lives in very real danger, I think they acted quite sensibly and decisively. Sentiment aside... It simply isn't worth risking people's lives in that way to rescue a dog.

Flip it on its head: imagine these officers had continued to try to catch the dog, or had left or waited for colleagues to close the road, and in the mean time an car with a young family (or multiple cars) are involved in a fatal collision. People then (I hope!) would be saying that the officers should have removed the hazard as quickly as possible, by any means necessary.

It was 3am and why not stop the traffic?

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Cherie

It was 3am and why not stop the traffic?

3am doesn't mean there was no traffic, a lot of goods transport goes on overnight on motorways. And stopping traffic would have involved either leaving the dog unattended or waiting for other officers to arrive, who may have been nowhere nearby. Closing a motorway takes more than just a police officer standing in the middle with their hand up. For one, at the very least, they need to find a long straight stretch with good visibility in order for traffic to stop safely (you have to assume some vehicles travelling at 90+ mph, even with perfect reaction times stopping distance is huge). Even THEN, stopping traffic flow on an unlit motorway carries a risk. All it takes is ONE driver not paying attention, going too fast when the road is curving, and you've got a potential pile up.

[user104658]

Tl;Dr closing a motorway requires several emergency services vehicles which may not have been available nearby, and waiting for them with traffic swerving around could easily end in disaster.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

3am doesn't mean there was no traffic, a lot of goods transport goes on overnight on motorways. And stopping traffic would have involved either leaving the dog unattended or waiting for other officers to arrive, who may have been nowhere nearby. Closing a motorway takes more than just a police officer standing in the middle with their hand up. For one, at the very least, they need to find a long straight stretch with good visibility in order for traffic to stop safely (you have to assume some vehicles travelling at 90+ mph, even with perfect reaction times stopping distance is huge). Even THEN, stopping traffic flow on an unlit motorway carries a risk. All it takes is ONE driver not paying attention, going too fast when the road is curving, and you've got a potential pile up.

It wasn't a motorway it was an A road in Wales

[Cherie]

And can you stop speaking to me like I'm a 5 year old

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Cherie

It wasn't a motorway it was an A road in Wales

It's a dual carriageway so closing it would involve exactly the same, and speeds are the same, so this isn't really an important distinction. The headline also describes it as a motorway.

[Livia]

Rolling roadblock.

[Kizzy]

How would a rolling roadblock stop a dog?

[bots]

i know that area of the road very well. Its not like a standard motorway, because there is not the room and distance around a 3 lane motorway plus hard shoulder. Its 2 lanes directly accessible from the side of the road, so a dog jumping on the road has an immediate effect on traffic. Still not happy with the principle particularly of killing anything that happens onto the road, but I can understand the dangers a roaming dog could present to traffic.

[Amy Jade]

I live by here and I'm not making accusations at all but the police officer who claims to have been bit by the dog refused to show the alleged bite mark

[Ammi]

...just to say Cherie, there is going to be an internal enquiry into this, I'm not sure whether it'll achieve much as there were only those police officers there...seeing the pic of the road though, it is the main running through dual carriageway so quite a busy road and I would have thought has large HGV traffic most times of day and night...here's the link from the Telegraph..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...-officers.html

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

Rolling roadblock.

You would need multiple vehicles to block a dual carriage way in both directions, plus at least another 2 people to then catch the dog. How long is it reasonable to allow a serious hazard to continue while you try to set that up? Especially with underfunded, understaffed police?

Maybe they have a higher presence around your area. Where I am it took the police 45 minutes to respond to a call about a fight in the centre of town, involving bricks and bottles, and 5 men stamping on a young guys head. And that's not half way down a random road in wales... The police station is literally two streets away.

Like I said in an ideal world and with the benefit of hindsight, multiple options were possible. At that very moment with a clearly potentially fatal situation developing, I think acting quickly was justified.

Would people have this issue if it was a badger or a fox? No, its just because its a domesticated dog. People can't deal with it because they're sentimental about dogs. Which is fine, but I'd hope sentimentality doesn't come into play when emergency services are protecting human lives...

[Kazanne]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

You would need multiple vehicles to block a dual carriage way in both directions, plus at least another 2 people to then catch the dog. How long is it reasonable to allow a serious hazard to continue while you try to set that up? Especially with underfunded, understaffed police?

Maybe they have a higher presence around your area. Where I am it took the police 45 minutes to respond to a call about a fight in the centre of town, involving bricks and bottles, and 5 men stamping on a young guys head. And that's not half way down a random road in wales... The police station is literally two streets away.

Like I said in an ideal world and with the benefit of hindsight, multiple options were possible. At that very moment with a clearly potentially fatal situation developing, I think acting quickly was justified.

Would people have this issue if it was a badger or a fox? No, its just because its a domesticated dog. People can't deal with it because they're sentimental about dogs. Which is fine, but I'd hope sentimentality doesn't come into play when emergency services are protecting human lives...

Erm,excuse me,I would feel exactly the same had it been a badger/fox etc,all life is precious,I am not sold on the idea that deliberately running into it and killing it was their only option,I am sure drivers who knew the situation would happily have stopped and helped to catch it,poor animal was probably already terrified,afterall had it been some nutter or drunk person running in the road,would they have done the same to them ?

[user104658]

Would you swerve at 70mph to avoid a fox? If you would, I seriously hope for the safety of all road users that you don't drive.