“She just can’t do this to anyone else - the next person might not be so lucky,” said a victim of a hit and run at the crosswalk at 10th and Carney Friday morning.
Cassaundra O’Brien, Prince George Track & Field throws coach, and her three-year-old retriever cross, Ares, were meeting a friend to walk their dogs at about 8:45 a.m.
This time it didn’t go as planned.
O’Brien walks lots so knows to make sure every vehicle is stopped before attempting to cross the street. Friday morning all vehicles remained stationary until she was about three quarters across the street and then things went very wrong when a woman driving a black SUV made a left-hand turn.
“She clipped me - mostly she hit my left arm more than anything,” O’Brien said. “Then unfortunately I watched my dog go underneath her front passenger-side tire and I was screaming - I have never made those kinds of noises in my life. I don’t know how she didn’t see me - at some point when you’re driving you’re going to see the pedestrian and hopefully stop. And now I see my dog is under her tire and I scream bloody murder.”
The leash had been wrenched from O’Brien’s hand at this point as she quickly realized the lady was going to keep driving and O’Brien was trying to pull Ares back to safety.
“I have never been so grateful in my life that my dog is a tank - didn’t ever need her to prove it though - she got hit, was under the tire - she’s scared and hurt - she took off running towards home then obviously I sprinted right after her because towards home is still a vehicle-filled road, right? At best she’s going to survive one but is she going to survive two? So I’m terrified and chasing after her.”
At this point O’Brien is in a sheer panic and back at the accident site her friend stayed behind to make sure everyone else was all right and witnessed, along with a school-aged boy, the SUV speeding away from the scene.
“Back at home it looked like a murder scene,” O’Brien described because Ares had several cuts around her head, neck and chest and a piece of the dog’s ear was missing.
“I didn’t know her ear would bleed so much.” O’Brien said.
She immediately took Ares to the vet for emergency care. Ares suffered several lacerations, a section of her ear had been ripped off and she has road rash on her hind quarters. Miraculously the little tank of a dog had no internal injuries and no broken bones. Ares, who has been Cassaundra and husband Andrew’s dog since she was eight months old, spent the day under observation at the vet’s and she will recover at home for the next two weeks.
When there was a pause in the frantic events, O’Brien and her friend reached out on social media to put out the call for witnesses as it didn’t even occur to either of them to try to get a look at the licence plate.
Very quickly a lady, whose son had witnessed the whole thing and thought to write down the plate number, had come forward.
“I am so sorry that he had to witness that,” O’Brien said. “Not only had this woman driver just tried to take my baby out of this world, but she’s also ruined somebody else’s baby’s mental capacity for a little bit I’m sure.”
O’Brien reported the event to the police and could then call in the licence plate to add to their file as they investigate the pedestrian/dog vs vehicle incident.
It’s been about 24 hours after the incident and there’s a few things going through O’Brien’s mind.
“God is good,” she said. “I just don’t want this woman to do this to somebody else. I want her to realize what she’s done. After I took off after my dog my girlfriend stayed to make sure everybody else was OK and they watched this lady tromp on it and leave. I don’t know what kind of a person you have to be to do something like that.”
