Seeing eye dog survives being dragged by train...

[Magpie]

Guide dog dragged along B.C. train platform


By Laura Baziuk, Postmedia News October 3, 2010

VANCOUVER — A guide dog was dragged along a British Columbia train platform last week when its leash got trapped in the doors.

A visually impaired woman and her dog boarded the train at the Burnaby, B.C., SkyTrain station last Thursday, TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said, when the dog suddenly hopped back on to the platform.

The train took off, with the woman on board and the dog running alongside with its leash caught in the sliding door. It crashed into the gate at the end of the platform, Snider said, and then somehow got around it and landed in the guideway below.

People on the platform called the SPCA and an animal hospital, Snider said, while one person jumped down on to the guideway to rescue it.

Meanwhile, another passenger hit the train’s silent alarm, which alerted staff to meet it at its next stop.

Snider said an attendant met the owner and notified SkyTrain controllers to stop all nearby trains so the dog wasn’t hit or electrocuted.

After the attendant brought the owner back to the Lougheed station, Snider said, her husband arrived and the two took the guide dog to the animal hospital, where it had extensive surgery.

The owner could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Snider confirmed the woman has filed a claim, reportedly for thousands of dollars in vet bills.

© Copyright (c) The Province

It's a horrifying accident and the owner of the dog must be completely traumatized. But I'm wondering about the claim she's filing against the train...?

Does the train have any liability in this case? What do you think?

 

[janey99]

Hmmm, my opinion would be that as a safety feature, automatic doors like those on a train, where the vehicle starts operating without a live person necessarily checking each and every door to ensure that nothing is caught/hanging out, should have a failsafe when something is detected squeezed between the closed doors. Something detected = train won't go unless a live person then confirms each door and manually hits an override. If something like that were not in place on this train, I would think "design flaw," with liability flowing from that, and if something like that were in place and it failed in this situation, then clearly there is liability there.

Depending on which of these are the theory they'd proceed under, ultimate liability could rest with any number of parties.

Jane

 

[sister in law]

Iris is my sister in law and some of you are way off the mark. You must not know the whole story or Iris as a capable seeing eye dog owner. Not only is Palm her eyes but also a beloved family member. Iris and Palm were trained by the best of the best on how to work together as a team. You assume (like an ***) that she went ahead of the dog and left Palm to be caught on the other side of the door when in fact Palm was ahead of her, as Palm always is (being a properly trained/licensed seeing eye dog) and Iris did everything a trained blind woman should do. People say, "well Iris shouldn't have gotten on the train if it was full" are you kidding me, she's blind! If she can get on without bumping into anyone anyone else would assume there is room as well. Perhaps, again, the public on the train should have said something to her if there was that little room for her to get on, out of the kindness of their hearts. NO ONE knows if Palm stepped out or was bumped out. TransLink has been caught in many lies to make themselves look better in the public's eyes so you shouldn't believe everything you read! And TransLink is saying Iris had filed complaints of thousands of dollars in damages and that isn't true either...again, TransLink doing anything possible to save face to the public...I suggest you get more facts from reliable sorces before you make such assumptions!

 

[Magpie]

Iris is my sister in law and some of you are way off the mark!!! You don't even know the story or Iris as a capable seeing eye dog owner. Not only is Palm her eyes but also a beloved family member. Iris and Palm were trained by the best of the best on how to work together as a team. You assume (like an ***) that she went ahead of the dog and left Palm to be caught on the other side of the door when in fact Palm was ahead of her, as Palm always is (being a properly trained/licensed seeing eye dog) and Iris did everything a trained blind woman should do. People say, "well Iris shouldn't have gotten on the train if it was full" are you kidding me, she's blind! If she can get on without bumping into anyone anyone else would assume there is room as well. Perhaps, again, the public on the train should have said something to her if there was that little room for her to get on, out of the kindness of their hearts. NO ONE knows if Palm stepped out or was bumped out. TransLink has been caught in many lies to make themselves look better in the public's eyes so you shouldn't believe everything you read! And TransLink is saying Iris had filed complaints of thousands of dollars in damages and that isn't true either...again, TransLink doing anything possible to save face to the public...I suggest you get more facts from reliable sorces before you make such assumptions!

Wow... Maybe you need to take this up with Laura Baziuk of Postmedia News. All I did was copy the article and ask a simple question, which was nicely and clearly answered.

Your rage is misdirected.

 

[SandrA9810]

I don't even see where half those accusations are coming from. And no one was making horrible assumptions.

To me the story reads, the dog lead her onto the train. After she was standing on the train, the dog then backed out of the door and onto the platform.

My only question it, Why was the dog on a leash and not on one of those harnesses that has the metal grab bar.

I don't know everything there is to know about seeing eye dogs, but in a harness like that, there is nothing dragging to catch in the doorway.
And the comment about the door check, I would assume they are like a garage door, if any pressure is felt while closing, it will stop, not just if something is caught in the sensor. A leash, would be thin and probably not set off that pressure alarm. You could try it with an elevator, i'm sure it uses some of the same technology. Have two people string a leash as the door is closing and see if it's detected once closed.

 

[cm8]

Wow... Maybe you need to take this up with Laura Baziuk of Postmedia News. All I did was copy the article and ask a simple question, which was nicely and clearly answered.

Your rage is misdirected.

wow, her sister is a "dis-er", I did not think anyone was jumping to conclusions and I am sorry to learn of the hurt that your family is currently going through. I hope that your sister gets the support she needs and that her SD comes through as well as he can

 

[bluesaturn]

Iris is my sister in law and some of you are way off the mark!!! You don't even know the story or Iris as a capable seeing eye dog owner. Not only is Palm her eyes but also a beloved family member. Iris and Palm were trained by the best of the best on how to work together as a team. You assume (like an ***) that she went ahead of the dog and left Palm to be caught on the other side of the door when in fact Palm was ahead of her, as Palm always is (being a properly trained/licensed seeing eye dog) and Iris did everything a trained blind woman should do. People say, "well Iris shouldn't have gotten on the train if it was full" are you kidding me, she's blind! If she can get on without bumping into anyone anyone else would assume there is room as well. Perhaps, again, the public on the train should have said something to her if there was that little room for her to get on, out of the kindness of their hearts. NO ONE knows if Palm stepped out or was bumped out. TransLink has been caught in many lies to make themselves look better in the public's eyes so you shouldn't believe everything you read! And TransLink is saying Iris had filed complaints of thousands of dollars in damages and that isn't true either...again, TransLink doing anything possible to save face to the public...I suggest you get more facts from reliable sorces before you make such assumptions!

misdirected rage award of the week.

 

[kacaju]

wow, her sister is a "dis-er", I did not think anyone was jumping to conclusions and I am sorry to learn of the hurt that your family is currently going through. I hope that your sister gets the support she needs and that her SD comes through as well as he can

her sister in law is not a *diser* look she has only 1 post. No one said anything bad against this poor woman or her dog!!
My understanding is that Seeing Eye dogs always wear their harness AND a leash while working.

 

[sister in law]

.

 

[sister in law]

The reply was made to an earlier post from about a week back but I couldnt figure out how to signup to one of these forums as I have never used one before. A friend told me some idiot had written on this blog and another(RedFlag) that Iris was completely to blame and that if she couldnt tell the dog was not beside her then it was her fault she got injured as well saying that people were over reacting bc dogs arent humans after all and disposable! You can see where our horror and anger may have come from...no intention to upset any other postees who were just commenting on the situation. We are just trying to set some lies being told in the media straight.
Oh ya, and Palm was wearing a harness(as some people seemed to think it was only a leash) The straps of the harness leash were caught in the door not just a flimsy dog leash...again, false info out there...
Magpie, Im not sure why you thought I was directing my first blog to you, there was no mention of your blog name in mine so I am sorry you thought it was towards you, again, it ws toward the *** who said the above stated things.

 

[bumbershoot]

The reply was made to an earlier post from about a week back but I couldnt figure out how to signup to one of these forums as I have never used one before. A friend told me some idiot had written on this blog and another(RedFlag) that Iris was completely to blame and that if she couldnt tell the dog was not beside her then it was her fault she got injured as well saying that people were over reacting bc dogs arent humans after all and disposable! You can see where our horror and anger may have come from...no intention to upset any other postees who were just commenting on the situation. We are just trying to set some lies being told in the media straight.
Oh ya, and Palm was wearing a harness(as some people seemed to think it was only a leash) The straps of the harness leash were caught in the door not just a flimsy dog leash...again, false info out there...
Magpie, Im not sure why you thought I was directing my first blog to you, there was no mention of your blog name in mine so I am sorry you thought it was towards you, again, it ws toward the *** who said the above stated things.

This isn't really a blog, but a message board. The post you found was from the day after this was in the news, and I don't even remember seeing that.

As for the harness, the ONLY question asked was specifically about a harness with "the metal grab bar"...doesn't seem like the doors could close on a metal grab bar, but probably could with a leash.

Magpie, Im not sure why you thought I was directing my first blog to you

Because she's the one that posted this, and NO ONE made any assumptions or said anything rude at all. I think maybe there's just some confusion about what you are replying to and where the posts someone said had been made actually are. Because they aren't in this thread.

 

[Magpie]

Magpie, Im not sure why you thought I was directing my first blog to you, there was no mention of your blog name in mine so I am sorry you thought it was towards you, again, it ws toward the *** who said the above stated things.

I started the thread, therefore any responses in this thread can reasonably be assumed to be responses to what I wrote. That's the way threads work.

As far as I know this was the only thread on the DIS Community Forum about this topic. I certainly never saw any others. I don't know anything about what anyone else might have said elsewhere on the world wide web.

You should try to find the actual comments and read them for yourself rather than relying on something you heard from a friend. Otherwise you just end up seriously confusing people.

 

[kacaju]

sister in law...
How is your sister in law Iris doing? How is the dog? I have many friends who raise seeing eye dogs through 4-H, so I see them starting off with the young puppies and watch them grow.

 

[sister in law]

magpie, good point. My friend told me over a week ago and I have been stewing all week and finally just wrote something to just tell the stupid idiot what I though of him...I found him last nite on the Regflag website about this topic so shot him off a note... either way, I apologize. Not knowing how to these sites really work I didnt attempt to track back and see if I can find the posting.(my mistake) I dont think I will be on these boards much more now anyways.

Kacaju, Iris is doing surprisingly well thanks. We are all truely in awe of how amazing Palm is doing. Its like Palm has just decided "well I have been thru something horrible but I just want to move on. I have as owner/family I need to devote myself too and I dont want to look backwards...." Whether she will ever work again we dont know. Iris cant imagine every putting her through the emotional distress of trying to get her on the skytrain or bus again...we will have to wait and see. ITs actually not Iris's decision when teh dog retires anyways. Its the center that trained her as a seeing eye dog(in Oregon, USA) that make that decision and they think Palm may have been too much trauma to work again. either way, we love her so much and will love her just as much as a family dog if that is the case. A kinder dog there isnt ; )

Thanks for everyone that was just wanting to support or show concern. OUr family is truely amazed at how the public has reacted. Iris is not wanting Translink to pay for Palms recovery now, the public has been amazing so Iris is thinking of asking them to just make a donation to a seeing eye dog organization in honor of the accident. We arent looking for any financial gain from this awful situation, just that it never happens again!(actually public doesnt know this bc Translink never let them know but there has been 4 incidents similar to this in safety regard. One with a seeing eyedog that was dragged and thankfully dislodged before going off the edge but suffered bad damages and emotionally coudlnt work again...so sad! )

 

[sister in law]

In case anyone wants to know what really happened:
Iris got on the train with Palm(ahead of her) and took a few steps in and turned around.. Palm either stepped out of the train or was bumped out, we dont know(and translink wont provide us with the video footage...). Iris had the leash/harness in her hands as normal and the door closed. Iris felt a sharp tug on teh leash as the train moved and realized that Palm wasnt beside her. She immediatly dropped the leash and started screaming for help...the sad part being that noone on the train offered to help her. It was silent she said. she started calling out that her dog was on the other side of the door and please hit the button. Noone tried to pry the door open(as it seems it can be done as someone on RedFlag quoted that men do this to pee off the train at nite???) The dog could be heard as it was all happening....how awful/tramatizing.... once Iris got off at the next station and made it back some amazing bystander jumped on teh track and brought Palm up to the platform. She was ripped open all across her chest/side/stomach. Muscle and bone exposed. Her muzzle smashed. She tried to get up and go to Iris bc she was still thinking about Iris and not herself!! Translink said they had stopped all further trains from coming so Palm was always safe but the bystanders said 2 trains actually went by her and nearly hit her...again translink cover there butts... Iris asked the skytrain attendants to hellp her call someone and all they said was "we cant do anything...we will call the SPCA to come get your dog"- so not helpful. Translink also said that their workers took Palm to the vet when in fact it was a wonderful bystander woman who by coincendce worked at a vets office carried Palm to her car and drove Iris and Palm to teh Vet hospital. Translink only called Iris once in teh first 4 days to tell her the Sun and Province wanted to talk with her. tHey never once asked how she or Palm was. Then after the Canada West Vet hospital did an interview(and running blog on their website which is fantastic) then did Translink call Iris and say that they didnt realize the damages were that serious or they would have called her sooner... just terrible!!!!! They keep saying that Iris had filed financial claims for money and she never did. I highly suggest going to the Canada wEst Vet hospital website and reading the blog on Palm, so good! 25% Palms wounds are not healing, bad infection. They are worried it may not be salvageable so they are treating her with an ancient honey bandage treatment and hope it helps. Palm also needs reconstructive surgery on her smashed muzzle, she still has trouble breathing.
Again, thanks for wanting to know and the support: ) Sorry for the brash first post; )

 

[cm8]

In case anyone wants to know what really happened:
Iris got on the train with Palm(ahead of her) and took a few steps in and turned around.. Palm either stepped out of the train or was bumped out, we don't know(and translink wont provide us with the video footage...). Iris had the leash/harness in her hands as normal and the door closed. Iris felt a sharp tug on the leash as the train moved and realized that Palm wasn't beside her. She immediate dropped the leash and started screaming for help...the sad part being that no one on the train offered to help her. It was silent she said. she started calling out that her dog was on the other side of the door and please hit the button. No one tried to pry the door open(as it seems it can be done as someone on RedFlag quoted that men do this to pee off the train at nite???) The dog could be heard as it was all happening....how awful/traumatizing.... once Iris got off at the next station and made it back some amazing bystander jumped on the track and brought Palm up to the platform. She was ripped open all across her chest/side/stomach. Muscle and bone exposed. Her muzzle smashed. She tried to get up and go to Iris bc she was still thinking about Iris and not herself!! Translink said they had stopped all further trains from coming so Palm was always safe but the bystanders said 2 trains actually went by her and nearly hit her...again translink cover there butts... Iris asked the sky train attendants to help her call someone and all they said was "we cant do anything...we will call the SPCA to come get your dog"- so not helpful. Translink also said that their workers took Palm to the vet when in fact it was a wonderful bystander woman who by coincidence worked at a vets office carried Palm to her car and drove Iris and Palm to the Vet hospital. Translink only called Iris once in the first 4 days to tell her the Sun and Province wanted to talk with her. they never once asked how she or Palm was. Then after the Canada West Vet hospital did an interview(and running blog on their website which is fantastic) then did Translink call Iris and say that they didn't realize the damages were that serious or they would have called her sooner... just terrible!!!!! They keep saying that Iris had filed financial claims for money and she never did. I highly suggest going to the Canada west Vet hospital website and reading the blog on Palm, so good! 25% Palms wounds are not healing, bad infection. They are worried it may not be salvageable so they are treating her with an ancient honey bandage treatment and hope it helps. Palm also needs reconstructive surgery on her smashed muzzle, she still has trouble breathing.
Again, thanks for wanting to know and the support: ) Sorry for the brash first post; )

wow, I am so sorry to see what all transpired. I hope that your sister and her loved sd recovers and heals. The fact that some on the train didn't try to help does not surprise me. that is plain

 

[kacaju]

thanks for the update. I used to work at a Veterinary Hospital for 11 year (17 years ago), before I had my first child. Thank you for telling us about the hospital blog, i added it to my list of favorites so i can keep up with how Palm is doing. God bless your family as you go through this Please know your family and Palm are in my prayers

 

[sister in law]

Thank you guys. Funny how i came on here to make a quick rant(at one idiot on another site I found out) and then again, see how amazing public can be with their well wishes and thoughts and prayers for our family. Really restores ones faith in humanity! Thanks again: )

 

[Magpie]

Thank you guys. Funny how i came on here to make a quick rant(at one idiot on another site I found out) and then again, see how amazing public can be with their well wishes and thoughts and prayers for our family. Really restores ones faith in humanity! Thanks again: )

Thank you SO much for the update/explanation! I really feel for your sister-in-law and Palm. I hope Palm recovers well - thank you for the blog link. I'll be following her story.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

I still remember when I was getting use to how forums work. They seem so simple and streamlined to me now (just like reading a well-organized outline), but they seemed really intimidating at first.

Thank you for giving us input on both your sister and Palm. It's amazing how much dis-information ends up out there! I hope Palm keeps on improving. Your family is in my thoughts.

Here's a direct link to the Canada West Vet Blog for anyone looking:

http://www.blog.canadawestvets.com/