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news
Lancaster Millenium Bridge cyclepathDog bite leaves cyclist with life-changing injury after owner “accused her of almost knocking into his child”
A woman in her forties was seriously injured after being bitten by a dog that stayed attached to her leg for several minutes in Lancaster.
The incident happened after the dog owner accused the woman, who was cycling with a friend, of “almost knocking into his child.” The dog walker then tapped one of his two brown Staffordshire bull mastiff-type on the head, causing it to bite the victim.
The woman was taken to the hospital with a potentially life-changing injury. She’s since been discharged.
The police are now appealing to find the dog walker as part of their enquiry of the incident that took place on the afternoon of 5 May on the cycle track behind the Priory Church and Lancaster Castle.
The police have described the dog walker as: “white, 5ft 9ins to 5ft 10ins tall, of a slim build with short back and sides brown hair. He is thought to be in his early 30s and was not wearing a top.”
Police Constable Richard Hannaford, from Morecambe Police, said: “This incident has left the victim with a very serious injury. As part of our ongoing enquiries, we need to identify and speak to the man who was walking the dogs. I would urge anybody who knows who he is – or the man himself – to contact the police as soon as possible. Similarly, I would ask any witnesses or anybody with CCTV, dashcam or mobile phone footage which could assist our investigation to please get in touch.”
Suvi joined F-At in 2022, first writing for off-road.cc. She's since joined the tech hub, and contributes to all of the sites covering tech news, features, reviews and women's cycling content. Lover of long-distance cycling, Suvi is easily convinced to join any rides and events that cover over 100km, and ideally, plenty of cake and coffee stops.
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18 comments
Sounds like attempted murder, or at the very least GBH, etc. because the dog has been used as a deadly weapon. Therefore, Police should be putting quite a bit of effort into finding the scumbag.
Nutters with big dogs like this are a threat to everyone. They train the dogs to be aggressive and they pose a hazard to kids and other dogs most of all. There's one in my area and I keep my dog away from him and his mutt. it's only a matter of time until something nasty happens sadly.
I hope the person in this incident heals up ok. I also hope the nutter has his dog taken away from him and the sooner the better.
Situations like this are one reason years ago most cyclists would carry long aluminium frame fit pumps.
There was one clubrun route that was renowned for its mental dogs attacking you, but my pump saved my legs on a number of occasions.
The feeling of satisfaction was well worth a new pump.
The poncey mini pumps everyone carries these days offer no protection from dogs.
Was the dog a Staffordshire bull terrier or a bull mastiff? Mastiffs are generally a bit bigger...
I'b bet my life this is the same prick who was walking his dog round Salt Ayre racetrack last year in the middle of a crit, thinking he was hard. Dog was a Staffy, bloke was same height and description. He was yanking the dog round on a rope as well - literally walking into the bunch as they came past. Fucking arsehole wants planting.
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You may well have lost your life, then!
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Might just be two people in UK that meet that description of the dog-owner.
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Seems to be a fairly specific area of Lancashire, so a reasonable chance it's the same scumbag.
Accused her of "almost" knocking into his child. So in response to this wicked transgression in which nothing at all happens he sets his attack dog on a passing member of the public. Nice. Sounds like the perfect father.
I hope that the dog owner is identfied. Assuming it is, I would not trust the legal system to offer much remedy other than a small fine. Something similar happened to a relative. It turned out that the owner had trained the dog as an attack dog & had it out on the street uncontrolled. They were found guilty in court but only a small fine. My relative is now pursuing a private claim for damages as they were also badly hurt, spending days in hospital.
Presumably you can insist the dog is destroyed. Unfortunately same can't happen to the owner who has trained this behaviour into the poor dog.
In this case not. The owner still has the dog.
I suppose you can try and insist but there's no such thing as insisting the police press charges, that's a matter for the CPS and then the sanction, if any, is a matter for the court. The only people who have unrestricted access to justice, at least in the UK, are the rich. The rest of us have next to no chance.
Not quite. As the dog owner was found guilty in court, albeit with only a small penalty, my relative is pursuing the owner via a "no win no fee" lawyer. It's not a great place to be but maybe some real justice may happen.
Up to a point, but the payout will be met by the dog owner's personal liability insurers (liability cover regularly comes as standard with home contents insurance) so will have little impact on the dog owner himself; it's by no means guaranteed he'll even be hit by higher premiums and most household policies don't have an NCD to lose.
Is that the whole case though (genuinely don't know) - as the owner was found guilty of not controlling his dog won't the insurers pursue him to reclaim the payout to a third party? I would have thought it would be similar to drink driving, where insurers are obligated to pay for third party claims but then will take action to recover as much as they can from the driver.
No. The whole point of liability insurance is that if you're sued because you do something careless your liability is covered.
If they could prove that the dog was incited to attack deliberately that would be different.
With Drink Driving it's because there's a specific exclusion in most policies saying the insurance is not valid if the driver is over the limit. Under motor insurance law, as the concerned insurer they still have to pay out third party claims but as the policy is in fact invalid they can reclaim from the driver. It's the same if you drove while disqualified, as your insurance policy will require that the driver have a valid licence.
But in this case it is not a question of having done something "careless", the owner was found guilty of an offence in court, which I would've thought would change matters.
I wish the victim of that attack a good recovery. I know of a case where there was a very severe infection following a dog bite. The cyclist was fully healthy prior to this event. The cyclist sustained very significant long-term health damage following the infection. While this is rare, it is important to get prompt medical attention following a dog bite and if you are in anyway unwell in the days after the dog bite to seek further prompt medical attention and make sure the medical personel are aware there was a dog bite.