New Jersey woman drives with her 2 dogs in the car. Then she hits a deer

For eight years, a woman named Ashley had let her dog Mystic ride in the back of her car without a seat belt. But after a conversation with her best friend, she decided to switch things up. And mere hours later, she was incredibly grateful that she had.

Ashley (@ashleyaccardi) recalls a frightening accident that left her shaking for hours. Her video has more than 7,000 views.

“I hit a deer last night, and then I cried for hours,” she says. “But my best friend is really the one who probably saved my dog's life.”

She also adds that “stories like this are crazy to me, because I feel like it's the universe trying to teach you a lesson and then seeing whether or not you apply that lesson. And thank goodness I did.”

The New Jersey woman explains she was driving in the dark when a deer suddenly appeared in front of her car.

“Deer comes out of nowhere, and I hit it dead on,” Ashley recalls. “Truly dead on. Could not have been more dead on.”

Fortunately, she wasn't driving fast, and nobody was driving behind her. But she did have precious cargo in the back seat: her two dogs.

Ordinarily, Ashley explains that she doesn't bother restraining her pets during car rides. Her larger dog, Mystic, typically rides loose in the back, and her smaller dog sits in the front seat.

“I know how dangerous that can be, and I will never do it again,” Ashley admits. “Especially after last night and the conversation I had with my best friend.”

A conversation may have saved her dog's life

Ashley explains how earlier that day, she'd been talking to her best friend, Christine, whose husband is a police officer. Somehow, their conversation turned to car accidents involving dogs, and Christine began sharing some of the horrific things that could happen to unrestrained pets in a collision, presumably having heard about them from her husband.

“She was talking about how they can go through the front windshield,” Ashley recalls, “there's people who broke their necks because the dog ended up on them or they choked themselves.”

The conversation affected her so much that she says, “When I got in the car yesterday for the first time in Mystic's eight years of life, I buckled her in.” She says she also buckled in her smaller dog in the passenger seat.

“I've never done this before in my lifetime of being a dog owner,” she says.

‘I cannot thank my best friend enough'

Then came the deer.

Ashley recalls instinctively reaching for her smaller dog to keep him from flying into the dashboard, despite having buckled him in. When she checked on Mystic in the back seat, she was relieved to discover that the dog hadn't moved very far.

She immediately pulled over. Luckily, everyone in the car was OK, “Mystic stayed grounded,” and the airbags didn't deploy. But she couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened if she hadn't listened to her friend.

“I cannot thank my best friend enough for having that conversation with me, for scaring the … out of me,” says Ashley. “Because I don't know where Mystic would be. Like, even just thinking about her being flung around the back seat or, like, falling under the seat or falling into me? I don't know. I don't even wanna think about it.”

She ends her video urging viewers to take precautions she herself had neglected for many years. “Let this just be a PSA to restrain your dog,” Ashley says. “Seat belt them in. Put them in a crate. Do something.”

Why restraining dogs is important

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), unrestrained dogs can pose serious risks to themselves and other passengers in the event of a crash. Animals can be thrown around the car or become distractions for drivers.

The agency found that 23% of dog owners say their dog's behavior has caused them to take their eyes off the road, while 19% have removed a hand from the steering wheel.

AAA recommends securing dogs in the back seat using an appropriately sized pet restraint, travel harness, or secured crate or carrier. AAA also notes that the back seat is safer for dogs than the front because it keeps them farther from airbags and reduces the risk of them becoming distractions.

The nonprofit Center for Pet Safety agrees with this assessment, writing that the front seat “is not the safest location in the car for your pet, exposing them to a) airbag deployment, and b) occupant compartment intrusion in frontal crashes.”

It also conducted crash tests on pet travel products and found that some restraints failed during simulated collisions, so do your due diligence when researching the best way to strap in your pup.

Ashley is far from the only dog owner who has let her dogs ride unrestrained. The aforementioned AAA survey also found that “nearly one-third of dog owners (32%) allow their dog to ride unrestrained or move freely throughout the vehicle.”

Among those who let their dogs ride loose, 44% said it was so the dog could stick its head out the window, 34% said they didn't own a proper restraint system, and 18% said they felt bad crating their pet.

Needless to say, Mystic won't be riding without a seat belt again.

@ashleyaccardi

Subplot News reached out to Ashley via email.

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