An eyewitness to a dreadful road accident has lodged a police report about a hit-and-run driver who knocked down a dog yesterday morning along Portsdown Road.
Posted on the Roads.sg Facebook page, a video of the incident that took place around 8:45am was captured by a dash cam. A dog was seen dashing across the road before a Volkswagen Golf rammed into the animal, sending it tumbling by the side of the road. The driver didn’t stop or even slow down following the collision, showing no signs of wanting to check on the dog he injured.
A description of the incident written by the video uploader noted that the driver was confronted further down the road at a traffic light junction, where he was asked why he didn’t stop to render assistance to the dog.
“His response was: ‘What you want me to do? What you expect me to do?’ When we told him it was an offense to not stop and help after knocking over a dog, he was irritated and said ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’. We requested for him to U-turn back to check on the dog, he replied ‘Ya, ya, okay’ but did not do so.”
An update in the post assured that someone called SPCA down to the incident site to pick up the injured dog. Though a veterinarian managed to stabilize its breathing, a hip fracture was found — an injury that required surgery.
“If no surgery is implied, the dog will be put (to) sleep.”
Speaking to The Straits Times, the eyewitness who confronted the driver has since lodged an online traffic violation feedback form on the Singapore Police Force’s website and is awaiting acknowledgment.
Hitting an animal while driving and not rendering assistance to it is an offense under the Road Traffic Act. Motorists are required to stop and help when they hit animals such as dogs, horses, mules, sheep, pigs, goats, and cattle (monkeys, cats, birds, and wild boars are left out of the law, for some reason). Those who fail to do so can be fined up to S$3,000 or jailed for up to a year.
