Travelling with your pets in the car is a major safety concern. There are serious dangers with unrestrained pets that travel in the car. An unrestrained dog or cat in the car during travel can be a hazardous distraction to a driver. Even if your pet is well behaved in the car, you still have to consider your pet's safety should another driver cause you to slam on your brakes or get into a collision.
A high percentage of people don't use safety restraints or crates for their pets when they've got them in the car. A 27 kilogramme dog riding unsecured in a vehicle will become a 1,224 kilogramme projectile if a wreck happens at just 55 kilometres per hour.
“Any passenger can be a distraction for a driver, we need people to belt up the whole family, including the pets,” said road safety officer Noel Gibbons.
For the fact is, we have heard from too many emergency workers about an unhappy cascade of horrors that often occurs when an unsecured pet travelling in a vehicle is involved in a collision. Not only can there be significant injuries to the animal and the people in the car, there is frequently a second wave of awfulness.
Paramedic Damien Feeney said: “Maybe the dog escapes through a broken window and dashes into traffic, causing more collisions and very often getting killed. Or maybe the dog, hurt and scared, gets protective of its human and won't permit the emergency workers into the vehicle to assist, sometimes going so far as biting.”
The campaign is sponsored by Petworld, where pet owners are reminded to make sure that not only are all humans safely belted up in the vehicle before they make their journey, but all pets are safely belted up also.
Petworld locations can be found in Athlone, Dublin, and Terryland and Briarhill in Galway. There are also Petworld stores located in Horkan’s Lifestyle and Garden Centres in Turlough, Castlebar and Sligo.
John Horkan, managing director for Petworld, said: “We take the safety of pets and pet owners seriously at Petworld, and have built up an extensive range of essential products for every pet owner, from seatbelt harnesses to window vents and more.”
Visit www.petworlddirect.ie to view the whole range and check out a video showing how to safely belt up your pet for travel, or visit your local Petworld.
Petworld stores and www.petworlddirect.ie will be offering a 20 per cent discount on a selected range of top safety products from October 3 to October 10, 2011, so come on over to Petworld and get your furry friends the gear they need to stay safe while travelling.
