Service dog may have saved Missouri pedestrian accident victim

Hit-and-run accidents may often leave many questions of what happened unanswered. Accident reconstruction experts, whether associated with the police or independent investigators looking for evidence, may be able to piece together events at the scene of the accident itself. But, many details about the events surrounding the pedestrian accident may be left without the appropriate pieces to the puzzle that can complete the overall picture.

Police continue to look for information and evidence in a recent pedestrian accident that has been left with many missing pieces after the driver involved allegedly fled the scene. A Springfield woman was walking to a bus stop when she was struck by a vehicle. The woman was born blind and was not able to give police a physical description of the vehicle that knocked her to the ground.

Thankfully, the woman has a service dog that was on-duty when the vehicle approached her. She says that her faithful friend saw the car approaching. Had the dog not been there to help before the crash occurred, the woman says that she has no way to know what could have happened. Still, the woman and her dog were struck.

The driver did stop briefly. The pedestrian accident victim says that she tried to question the driver, but the vehicle eventually left the scene–with the accident victim behind. Emergency personnel took the injured woman to the hospital for treatment and evaluation. The woman still feels pain her leg from the incident, but it could have been far worse had the woman’s service dog not acted as her eyes before the car slammed into her and her protector. The dog was not injured in the hit-run accident.

Source: ABC 17 News, “Police searching for driver who hit blind woman and guide dog, then drove away,” Sept. 4, 2013