Accident with a dog on the motorway

Police came just half an hour ago. They told me the dog owners had the dog and another dog, in a nearby field and one of them ran off and escaped through a hole in the fence. The police say it was a big dog and they are surprised the damage to the car wasn't much worse. They told me the dog must have died instantly so didn't feel much pain. The owners have dog insurance and the police left me the details of the dog's insurance and the dog's name. I feel bad and don't feel like chasing the dog's owners, I told the police that. I will try fix the car myself.

mach1rob, I will test the cooling fans to see if they are working, if not, I will buy from you, the ones you have.

Sorry to read about your incident not god for either party,if i was going to claim off the dog owners i would want the insurance company to look after the claim, you say you are going to fix the car yourself but this is why we all have insurance, you shouldn't be out of pocket.
Paul.

Thanks Paul, yes very true. I will inspect the car and properly asses what needs doing. There could be more damage underneath as the dog went under the car.

What a horrible thing to happen, and so sad for the owner to have lost her dog in such a way that was her own fault ..
Glad you are ok, I would imagine you feel pretty sick, but it was not your fault in anyway :hugs:

Yes, I was feeling pretty bad yesterday as I thought it was my fault but now that the police have been to my house and assured me it wasn't my fault I am getting better now. I feel bad about the dog, the police say it must have died instantly so shouldn't have been in much pain. I now have the damaged car to sort out. Bad luck, for me and the dog, to be at that location at that particular time. The police say it is good I didn't swerve as it could have been worse.

Give your insurance company the details and let them deal with it. That's what you pay for. It seems like the dog owners were the responsible type and that's one thing less to worry about.

Maybe you should also consider your own trauma a little bit and perhaps communicate your sincerity in some way to the bereaved owners. Maybe that will make you feel a little better, it's your call though of course. I know this would have made a difference to my sister 'KazzyBott' (the middle one in the pic) who's also a member here, when she lost her cat 'Ollie' - click click.

People do become close with their pets, sometimes too close. We have our own pet section here at the T-bar which truly shows what some folks think of the family mutt or moggy.

Bottom line is that you're ok, the owners will get over it and so will you. At the end of the day it's just a car and you're sincerely concerned for the loss of their dog. That sentiment is well worth conveying. it really does make a difference to some more than others. It helps life to move on. Whatever you choose to do, I thank you for sharing this story with us. :hugs:

Hi all, I hope you had a good christmas and a happy new year. Well, I decided to fix the car myself, keeping all reciepts of parts and taking pictures of all the damage. I will decided if I will chase for compensation for my costs later.

I have got some progress. I managed to find a brand new headlamp unit discounted from £90 to £57. I also did this today:
Good news is that I managed to bend back the bent radiator support cross member. I used a porta hyraulic contraption, I used the spreader wedge by inserting it between the bent radiator support frame and the suspension cross member subframe and pumped. The bent member slowly straightened itself. The bad news is that the radiator started leaking, I think it had a crack at the bottom and this got disturbed as the member moved. So it was infact leaking after the accident but somehow sealed itself at rest and started leaking today when disturbed. I will take it out tomorrow and see if it can be fixed. Looks like I will need a replacement radiator

This 4 Ton thing easily bent back the strong cross member back to shape.



Before:



After:



I will continue bending it to perfection tomorrow.

My messed up bumper, but it is cosmetic, not forgetting registration plate.

Better to have the radiator let go where you can sort it.

Could have gone on a motorway, or somewhere you couldnt stop.

Glad you can fix it.

:beer: :beer: :beer:

Update:
Hi all!
All done at last

I had to make a power steering cooler from copper pipe as a new one costs £119.50 from Rimmerbros .
I only spent £22 for 10 meters of copper tubing. Still lots of copper left.:lol:

No power steering fluid leak at all after the fix.

Good radiator/aircon condenser/intercooler and fans for only £30 from the scrapyard. A good scrapyard as you remove the parts yourself from the scrap cars.

Let there be light, replacement headlight working ok.

I had to replace the turbocharger too as the old one seized and spat its wastegate onto the exhaust.
Notice the missing wastegate flap.

I also had to helicoil thread repair a stripped exhaust manifold thread in the cylinder head.
Thread repaired

Exhaust manifold in place waiting for the replacement turbocharger

Replacement good turbocharger in

And here is a video of the car.

I had to wait till the weather got a bit warmer to carry out most of the repairs. Even though I did it myself it has been somewhat a financial drain but the good thing is the car is working now.

Nicely modded job there Denis. :broon:

Nice job there Denis. :broon:

Well done for seeing it through and getting a future classic back on the road.

.... oh, and good post BTW. :lol:

Thanks Leigh Ping and Mogatrons. Looking back, I think the accident was a blessing in disguise as it gave me the opportunity to attend to and fix the other issues that the car had such as the faulty turbocharger, stripped exhaust manifold thread hence blowing exhaust manifold gasket, and a vacuum/boost leak at the throttle body gasket(rubber bracket). All these are fixed now and it is like a new car now, very quiet, very smooth idle and starts within the first 1 second of the starter motor cranking.