Seat Belts for Dogs?

In the early afternoon of this past Halloween Virginia was driving from Lewiston across the Blue Bridge with her dog Piffels in the seat beside her. A man coming fast from the opposite direction skidded across several lanes of traffic and hit Virginia's car nearly head on. Her air bag probably saved her life but Piffels wasn't as lucky. He slammed into the windshield, then somehow was thrown across Virginia's lap and out through her side window. As she got out of the car, she saw Piffels, lying dead on the pavement.

I got to thinking about accidents and how to get an idea of the impact involved in a collision like the one that killed Piffels. I got out my old Physics textbook and used my calculator and figured a couple of things out. The roof of our two-story house is about 19 feet high. If the canine crash dummy in today's cartoon jumped head first off the roof into the half of that car he would be going about 23.78 miles per hour when he hit the windshield. That's like a head-on collision with a brick wall at "only" 24 mph. I wouldn't want to take a nosedive off the roof of my house, even if I landed in the flowerbed. And hitting a brick wall at 65 miles per hour would be like falling off a balcony fifteen floors up.

Crash dummies have played an important role in the design of seat belts and airbags, and all the other important safety features of modern automobiles. Crash dummies have also been improved over the years. The joints, limbs, head, etc. are carefully designed to act in an accident exactly like those of a human. They have many sophisticated sensors that record every significant impact and stress in fraction of a second of the crash. I would guess a crash dummy probably costs more than many of the cars they are used to test.

I don't think they have crash dummies for dogs and cats and I don't think there are any reliable data on how well available restraint devices for dogs and cats actually work in accidents. Automobile collisions are usually not directly head-on and it is really hard to consider all the possibilities and avoid surprises and unintended consequences. The seat belt and airbag that probably saved Virginia's life are the result of years of careful design and testing. They have been and continue to be refined over the years and have dramatically improved the survival rate in serious automobile accidents.

They do make restraints for dogs and cats. You can find them at pet stores and on the Internet. Most of them are based on a type of harness that clips to the regular seat belt in the car. I found a website - www.champk-9.com - that offers what seems to be a good harness with a sturdy strap that connects to your seatbelt, or to the built in baby seat bracket now found on many cars. They also have a system for restraining dogs in the back of an SUV or pickup truck.