Dog ran into me and I broke my ankle - now what?

POPPYOSCAR

JencParker wrote: »

No, why should we? It was a large area and there was plenty of room to go round, besides, the speed with which she came would not have given us the time to move even if we were thus inclined. For some reason joggers seem to live in their own bubble that makes them unaware of anything outside the bubble they run in.

Common courtesy would dictate to me to stand to one side to let someone else pass if I were stationary and they were moving.

OverlandLandy

Interesting thread that seems to be stirring up the 'we are holier than you' Brigade and the lots of generalisations..


A few observations..
Are you American (you use the term Leash?) .. if so is your outlook based on the more American ways of Suing folks? Its Not a criticism.. but one someone could throw at you (rightly or wrongly).


What is your partners employer saying about this? Can they make reasonable adjustment (Ie working from home).


If you are self employed you will be asked to explain what you cannot do now vs what you could do before.. ie you will need to account for your loss of earnings.


Compensation for pain and suffering ... difficult to prove or disprove and if you get any compensation from this angle it will probably be on a tariff type basis.. ie 1 Broken ankle = £xx (and it might not be much if anything)


You will be asked why you did not get out of the way (as the superior intellect it is kind of up to you to do this.. as you say you saw the dog coming..you will be pressed to explain..


Why did you allow the dog to jump up for a second time? Are you an experienced dog owner? What exactly did you do? ie was your response to the dog jumping up a 'signal' that the dog too that it was to do it again for you? ie a Shriek or an excited noise.. or did you remain silent and turn so that the dog could not jump up?


If the owner has insurance it may well cover some of your claim.. but you will probably need to prove financial hardship.. in the same way that if it goes to court the dog owner may be told to pay you compensation such that they do not suffer their own financial hardship (ie you might get compensation at £10 a month for the next 40 years or something of that ilk!)


If your initial statement is taken as read the actions of the owner and the dog probably will fall under the dangerous dogs act and you could well find the dog is put down. If it is that out of control and the owner cannot cope this might be what is ordered as the act does little to discriminate... it just looks at the situation (dog not under control) and the Outcome (you ended up with a broken ankle solely due to the dogs actions).


BTW - I love dogs and have many of them. They are on an off the lead. they are all well trained and natured. they work to hand and whistle commands. It just does not happen. You need to keep working and training on an ongoing basis. to allow a dog to be out of control anywhere cannot be acceptable to anyone.. owner or members of the public (even if they are joggers ;-) )


Good luck with whatever you do.. what ever way you go there is a long road ahead. I hope you get the outcome that you want and that is fair to all involved.

Andyclockwise

OverlandLandy wrote: »

Interesting thread that seems to be stirring up the 'we are holier than you' Brigade and the lots of generalisations..


A few observations..
Are you American (you use the term Leash?) .. if so is your outlook based on the more American ways of Suing folks? Its Not a criticism.. but one someone could throw at you (rightly or wrongly). I don't understand your point - If its not a criticism, why would someone be throwing it at us? We're born in the UK, British for what its worth. I said "it was leashed" - how would you use "lead" in that sentence?


What is your partners employer saying about this? Can they make reasonable adjustment (Ie working from home).


Its been requested, but there is a limit to what can be done from home and their stance is full time or not at all. i.e you can't be sick part time. If you can bear to read all the posts this has been already covered.


If you are self employed you will be asked to explain what you cannot do now vs what you could do before.. ie you will need to account for your loss of earnings.


Compensation for pain and suffering ... difficult to prove or disprove and if you get any compensation from this angle it will probably be on a tariff type basis.. ie 1 Broken ankle = £xx (and it might not be much if anything) .
How do you know this to be the case -I'd be very interested in your source for this information?


You will be asked why you did not get out of the way (as the superior intellect it is kind of up to you to do this.. as you say you saw the dog coming..you will be pressed to explain..


Why did you allow the dog to jump up for a second time? Are you an experienced dog owner? What exactly did you do? ie was your response to the dog jumping up a 'signal' that the dog too that it was to do it again for you? ie a Shriek or an excited noise.. or did you remain silent and turn so that the dog could not jump up?


It didn't jump up as such. This all happened in the blink of an eye - we had just got past the dog and it ran back to us, hit my partner from behind the first time so she didn't see him coming, she then tried to take evading action, but Rufus hit her again and knocked her over. There really was nothing she could do.

If the owner has insurance it may well cover some of your claim.. but you will probably need to prove financial hardship.. in the same way that if it goes to court the dog owner may be told to pay you compensation such that they do not suffer their own financial hardship (ie you might get compensation at £10 a month for the next 40 years or something of that ilk!)


As I've said elsewhere they do have it, and I doubt any law firm would take this on if they didn't.


If your initial statement is taken as read the actions of the owner and the dog probably will fall under the dangerous dogs act and you could well find the dog is put down. If it is that out of control and the owner cannot cope this might be what is ordered as the act does little to discriminate... it just looks at the situation (dog not under control) and the Outcome (you ended up with a broken ankle solely due to the dogs actions).
I would never want to see a beautiful dog like Rufus destroyed, we would rather take him on ourselves if the owner felt he couldn't cope with it. I doubt it would come to this - but you seem to know a lot about it - do you have any evidence to support this?

BTW - I love dogs and have many of them. They are on an off the lead. they are all well trained and natured. they work to hand and whistle commands. It just does not happen. You need to keep working and training on an ongoing basis. to allow a dog to be out of control anywhere cannot be acceptable to anyone.. owner or members of the public (even if they are joggers ;-) )


Good luck with whatever you do.. what ever way you go there is a long road ahead. I hope you get the outcome that you want and that is fair to all involved.

Please see my response in red above.

JencParker

custardy wrote: »

Yet you feel the person jogging should move for you?
There's someone in a bubble for sure.

Please could you tell my why the priority should be to move out of the way for a jogger as you are suggesting? How bizarre - a public park it is for all to share. We were standing in one area a jogger chose to come through us, she could easily have gone round but obviously (and misguidedly) thought she had some sort of priority.

I'd also add, that joggers, like cyclists, do need to take extra care as they are travelling at speed.

JencParker

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Common courtesy would dictate to me to stand to one side to let someone else pass if I were stationary and they were moving.

You clearly can't read or didn't read what I said. She appeared out of nowhere and there was no time to move. Common courtesy should shown her that there were people already in that part of the park and she could have gone round.

custardy

JencParker wrote: »

Please could you tell my why the priority should be to move out of the way for a jogger as you are suggesting? How bizarre - a public park it is for all to share. We were standing in one area a jogger chose to come through us, she could easily have gone round but obviously (and misguidedly) thought she had some sort of priority.

I'd also add, that joggers, like cyclists, do need to take extra care as they are travelling at speed.

The priority? You seem confused.
You and your fellow 2 and 4 leggers were blocking the way.
common courtesy would be to keep a path clear or make space.
Would you have moved for a cyclist(since you mentioned them) or would they have to weave through you too?

JencParker

Andyclockwise - have you actually spoken to the dog owner since this happened (you say you see them regularly). If they have insurance then it may be worth putting a claim in. Whether they pay or not will depend on the actual facts (both points of view and any witnesses), which insurance company they are insured with (if any).

What will you do if they have no insurance? Do you plan on suing them?

I do think though, that the best advice was that if a broken ankle will cause so much financial hardship it would be worth en ensuring you have sufficient cover in the future. This is just he sort of thing that could be a complete accident.

JencParker

custardy wrote: »

The priority? You seem confused.
You and your fellow 2 and 4 leggers were blocking the way.
common courtesy would be to keep a path clear or make space.
Would you have moved for a cyclist(since you mentioned them) or would they have to weave through you too?

Nobody had to weave through anyone - there was plenty of room to go round but for some reason they chose not to. I'm not confused, you however.... well I will refrain from saying :rotfl:

custardy

JencParker wrote: »

Andyclockwise - have you actually spoken to the dog owner since this happened (you say you see them regularly). If they have insurance then it may be worth putting a claim in. Whether they pay or not will depend on the actual facts (both points of view and any witnesses), which insurance company they are insured with (if any).

What will you do if they have no insurance? Do you plan on suing them?

I do think though, that the best advice was that if a broken ankle will cause so much financial hardship it would be worth en ensuring you have sufficient cover in the future. This is just he sort of thing that could be a complete accident.

Take the dog owners house?
After all if a simple broken ankle could cause them financial hardship. They should ensure they have sufficient cover in future.

custardy

JencParker wrote: »

Nobody had to weave through anyone - there was plenty of room to go round but for some reason they chose not to. I'm not confused, you however.... well I will refrain from saying :rotfl:

So you were in some random piece of grass that everyone chooses to travel through?