Woman seeking witnesses after dog gets run over at Paya Lebar, netizens tell her to stop blame game

A woman's plea for witnesses to a traffic accident involving her pet dog led to netizens pointing the finger at her instead.

According to her, the white Shiba Inu named Luca escaped from her home and ended up on Upper Paya Lebar Road, under the Bartley Viaduct, on Monday (May 23) at about 10.30pm.

In dashcam footage shared on Facebook group SG Road Vigilante yesterday (May 25), the dog was seen scrambling across the two-lane road before he was hit by a car.

"[The driver] saw Luca from so far away and he still ran him over full speed and dashed off," she wrote.

The woman, who was seen cradling her injured pet in the video, addressed the driver in the Facebook post.

"Do you know how much pain you have caused me over the period of 24 hours? You have made my life a living nightmare," she said.

According to her, the hit-and-run left Luca with a punctured lung and severed spinal cord, paralysing him from the waist down. 

"If you had slowed down, he probably would still have a fighting chance," she said. It is unclear if the dog survived the accident. 

The woman shared that she chased after Luca on foot and her stepmother chased after him in a car for 40 minutes.

She also questioned the driver: "Tell me, what's the backstory? Had too many beers or had a fight with your wife? Or perhaps using your phone, didn't see the road in front of you? Or you simply had a sick pervasion and got a mild high from running over an innocent animal? Sick f***."

Reddit user Onegritsandpaper, who claimed to be the dog owner's friend, said on Tuesday that Luca had run out of his owner's home the night before and they've made a police report and contacted the Land Transport Authority about the accident. 

Despite the woman's explanation, one Facebook user still felt that the dog was hurt "indirectly due to her and her family's negligence".

Several others echoed the same sentiment in the comments section.

But one netizen went against the tide, saying that the only person to blame for the accident is the driver.

A Reddit user disagreed and felt that there was "absolutely no way" the driver could avoid hitting Luca.

Under the Road Traffic Act 1961, a motorist must stop their vehicle in an accident where an animal is injured or killed, if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the animal has an owner or the presence of the animal on the road may pose a safety hazard to other road users.

SPCA Singapore, on its Facebook page, recommended that in the event of an accident with an animal, motorists should stop their vehicles and call them or the National Environment Agency for assistance. 

In April, netizens lost their cool at a dog owner in Johor Bahru after a video of the dog scampering by the side of a moving car was shared on Twitter.

The dog, which did not seem to be walking normally, was being dragged along on a leash.

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amierul@asiaone.com