Great Yarmouth: Woman saves dog from crash on A47
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Published:
18:13 February 13, 2022
Update:
6:55 PM February 13, 2022
A woman has saved a dog from a major accident on a busy dual carriageway near Great Yarmouth.
Dee O’Callaghan, 31, from Cromer, was being driven by her friend on the A47 on Sunday February 13 when she noticed a dog running down the road.
With traffic in front of her slowing down, she immediately told her friend to stop the car and jumped out.
She said: “Luckily the traffic was quite slow and we weren’t driving at high speed.
“If a driver or motorcyclist had to apply the brakes to avoid hitting the dog, it could have caused an accident and multiple injuries.
“I wasn’t worried about my own safety. I had to act.”
Miss O’Callaghan said the dog, believed to be an English Springer Spaniel, looked ‘distressed’ and was ‘running erratically’.
What came next was a “real team effort”, according to Miss O’Callaghan.
She said: “There were probably five or six of us getting out of our vehicles to help catch the dog.
“But between 12 and 15 cars helped us do it by putting their hazards on and slowing down. It was a real team effort.”
Miss O’Callaghan added that if the dog had crossed to the other side of the carriageway where other cars were still speeding, it could have caused a ‘major accident’.
She said: “I’m a big animal lover, but it wasn’t just about the dog.
“If she had crossed to the other side of the road, people could have been seriously injured or killed.”
After checking the dog, Miss O’Callaghan said the animal was in poor condition so had no choice but to take it to the vet.
She said: “She was really dirty and smelled terrible. All I wanted to do was take her home and give her a bath.
“We took her straight to Gorleston Veterinary Hospital to be checked out.”
And for Miss O’Callaghan, saving the dog was personal as she herself had recently lost a pet.
She said: “One of my cats died in October so I felt fine.
“I know the pain of losing a pet and if I had been told my dog had escaped and been hit by a car I would have been devastated.”
The owners of the dog have not yet been found.