Dogs knock over my mother, broken arm, what can I do.

digimortal_2

Sorry but I do not want to go into details of where and who etc on these forums, but I will add the following.. the owners were really sorry for what happened, and gave the details etc, they really had to because of what happened. Also anyone thinking just another claim.. my mother has had to cancel a holiday to Belgium in two weeks time, she has lost £400 for this trip, also visits to the fracture clinic, parking costs etc, and time for my wife to take her, as she can not drive for the next 6-8 weeks, so costs are adding up through no fault of her own.

She did not trip over the dogs, slip, or just fall over.. the dogs ran that quick into her, the first thing to hit the ground was her arm/shoulder, lucky we were only about 50 yards from a car park for the ambulance that took her to A&E.

Yes I may have stepped the mark calling her elderly, but someone at her age taking a fall like this is very scary. The blame here is not with the dogs, my mum, but with the owners by not keeping both dogs under control, they had time to call the dogs to heal, or at least calm them down, but they didnt...

olias

Did she not have insurance for her trip?

Olias

Loanranger

Digimortal, you will get little or no sympathy here on this board from the folks who post here. Generally, they 're the type where dogs can do no wrong, as evidenced by the replies here.

Hope your mother recovers quickly. I believe that you have been badly treated on this board, your mother is elderly but even if she were ten years old the owners of those dogs should be downright ashamed of themselves and yes, it's right they should have stopped to give their details, we should not be applauding them for the one thing they did right that day.

digimortal_2

olias wrote: »

Did she not have insurance for her trip?

Olias

In the process of checking things like this out.. but thanks..

digimortal_2

Loanranger wrote: »

Digimortal, you will get little or no sympathy here on this board from the folks who post here. Generally, they 're the type where dogs can do no wrong, as evidenced by the replies here.

Hope your mother recovers quickly. I believe that you have been badly treated on this board, your mother is elderly but even if she were ten years old the owners of those dogs should be downright ashamed of themselves and yes, it's right they should have stopped to give their details, we should not be applauding them for the one thing they did right that day.

No worries, maybe my post will bring this to mind when people walk dogs etc, hopefully prevent a similar thing happening.

meritaten

I did sort of give a strong hint that the dog owners were liable (under law) for the injury to your mother!
They are liable for any loss financially, your mother has due to her injury, They are liable for compensation for the 'Broken bone', and for peripheral costs ie transport to hospital apps or being unable to drive and having to take taxis or public transport (ask for and keep reciepts).
Your mum was unlucky to be involved in this accident - but lucky that these pet owners actually stopped and gave details! obviously they felt responsible and had insurance! so can we stop with the 'irresponsible pet owners hate campaign please?'

KxMx

Sorry but one right doesn't negate the wrong.

Yes they did stop and give details which was decent. But they were at fault in the first place and from the sounds of things let their dogs get out of control.

I would be raving mad if this happened to my Nan or my Mum and I assure you I am an animal lover!

The use of the word "accident" suggests that no-one was at fault and it was an unfortunate occurance, doesn't seem like the case to me here.

When a dog bites a child it's seen as an outrage by most but knocking over an older lady resulting in a broken bone is ok according to some on here!

krlyr

KxMx wrote: »

When a dog bites a child it's seen as an outrage by most but knocking over an older lady resulting in a broken bone is ok according to some on here!

I'm not being overly "protective" of dogs as a whole but the way I see it - if two children had been running around and sped around a corner and barrelled into this lady and tripped her up, it would be viewed as an unfortunate accident by most. Totally different to two children running over and hitting someone with a stick, tripping them up intentionally, pushing them over, etc.
Kids, like dogs, shouldn't be running riot where they may injure people but it happens.

Accident doesn't mean there should be no recourse - as someone else said, many car crashes are accidents and you expect compensation for damages and injuries for that, but you have to ask where you draw the line. Would you sue a parent if their child knocked you over and you broke your arm in the fall? But that's only something OP/her mum can decide in the end. If OP wants some proper legal advice then other sections of the board may give a better response, or approach the appropriate professional who will know what they're talking about and give the facts rather than opinion.

Welshwoofs

My view on this is that the owners did the right thing in giving their details; but I don't really understand some of the vitriol against the dog owners. I've been knocked over by a dog twice in my life - both times by my own dog who wasn't out of control at the time. He's also knocked over a few small children in his time and in every one of those occasions he was on a lead and actually just standing....the problem was that the children were very small and my dog is enormous; they were allowed by their parents (without asking me I'll hasten to add) to run up and pat him and literally just the act of him turning around on the spot was enough to knock them over.

The times I have had my legs taken out from under me and been knocked down hard has been by other people's bloody children on little bikes, trikes and scooters...but apparently it's 'not the done thing' to suggest that they should be under control in public, even if the 'public' in question has whalloping big signs saying 'No Cycling'.

Mupette

OP what is it you want the dog owners to do?

loanranger get a grip, if the dogs had savaged her then yes we would be up in arms about it, fact is, it was an ACCIDENT. one that might have been prevented who knows, we were not there so we only have the OP's words on what happened.