come on guys..heatwave over..lets quit the tit for tat swabblin and getback on topic

ermm your actually agreeing with all I have said?

Am I? I read your quote to mean that it's up to people to make their own minds up and if something happens, it's on their conscience - that their decision only affects them and their dogs. If I was involved in a car crash and my OH was killed or seriously injured due to someone's unrestrained dog flying out of their car, I wouldn't really be comforted by the fact they had his death on their conscience, I'd be wishing that restraints for dogs was an enforced law. Maybe I've misinterpreted but that's how it came across to me.

If you had read my previous posts on this thread then yes you would have seen you are agreeing with me!

My post was pretty much saying that - I thought everyone would think of their pets safety. and if they dont then its on their heads, we as a forum (cleary) cant change others opinions or tell them what is right or wrong, we can only state our opinions. Until laws come out about restraining pets in cars, people will continue to do as they please with little thought for their own, pets and other road users safety.

Just saw this. If you have a crash without a seatbelt and you or a passenger end up thrown out of the car, you put others at risk. It's going to be bad enough if your car ends up stranded in the middle of a busy road/motorway lane but if there are people strewn across other lanes the the risk of people swerving and having their own accidents may be increased, people stopping/the emergency services to move you out of the road, etc. - or you being flung out of your car onto someone else's car and potentially causing them injury that way.
Ditto to unsecured dogs, an unconcious/dead dog flying out onto a motorway or a dog running loose around busy traffic is going to put more people at risk than just the passengers of the car that the dog was in.

Wow Your imagination is running riot now lol

Wow Your imagination is running riot now lol Has any one thought about trying to get a harnessed, secured dog from a car that is on fire!!! I used to have a boyfriend who was a Fireman and the stories he could tell me about trying to get people out who were seatbelted in wasd unreal so would me difficult imo to try and get dogs out quick enough all harnessed up

This has moved on a lot from heads out of windows.

I would just like too say Ollie travels in the boot behind a guard and I am afraid it is not a specific one for our car or an expensive one.

Picking up on the point of seat belts I think they are good and bad for humans and dogs I was born in the late 50's no seat belts then. Not as many cars either granted. But I remember I use to lay on the back seat with a blanket to go to sleep if we had a busy and long day out.

I remember my dad being mortified about having to wear a set belt because he could only visualize having an accident and not being able to get out in case of fire or the car turning onto its roof and being suspended by the belt. He was worried he would not be able to save his family if such an accident occurred.

I was in my late teens when they were introduced and we all got use to wearing them and yes they probably have saved a lot of lives.

Both my children had car seats but those were the days when you could buy them second hand off a boot sale not the regulations we have today. They both wore seat belts when older and booster seats were not invented. The Grandchildren travel in the booster seat which is built into my car and buckled up too. But if I keep thinking of the things that could of happened and it was luck they didn't I would be greyer than I am already.

I am not sure of the ages of some who are telling us about all these horrific things that could happen but I feel you are maybe not as old as some of us who have lived without a lot of the things that you have been brought up with so you maybe see fear where some of us don't. That is not meant as disrespect to any of you but that is just my feeling on this subject.

I like to know Ollie is safe where ever I take him walking or driving. I would maybe in some instances try to educate on the safety aspect of things if I thought they were doing something potentially dangerous in a nice polite way and then leave them and hope they had taken on board my thoughts and seriously think about them and maybe put them into practice. But you cannot impose your views on others as much as you may feel your way is the safest and the best way not everybody sees it yours or my way.

So come on guys lets lighten up however much either side argues about which way is right or which way is wrong we will all do our own thing in the end.

Some of the suggestions put forward about what could happen are very true but also very rare. Everything in life is a risk and I am a firm believer in fate if we are meant to go a certain way we will and everything happens for a reason. So I will personally carry on doing what I am doing and knowing I am keeping Ollie as safe as I can under my circumstances and so is everyone else here even if it isn't the way that you or I may agree with.

The chances of being thrown from a car are higher than the car setting fire though - otherwise seatbelts for humans wouldn't make sense either. It's not my imagination running wild, it's fact - just google to find a ton of articles of people being thrown from their vehicle during crashes due to no seatbelts. I've been in 2 car crashes where other people hit into cars I was passenger in, and one where I was driver, and in all 3, I bet if I didn't have my seatbelt on I would've been a lot more severely injured. Crash one, I would've smacked at a good speed into the passenger seat infront of me (potentially harming them too), 2nd I probably would've gone through the windscreen as the impact was that bad, and 3rd I would've been flung sideways (as my car was spun across two lanes) - as it was, I clunked my head on the side window. Yes, a bit of imagination required to picture a dog in those situations but not very much needed to predict the outcome if the dog wasn't restrained, they probably would've followed my same path.

I haven't read all the posts, and I don't want to get into a squabble on the subject, but IMO a dog should be at least restrained from getting into the front of the car, whether it be by crate, dog guard, harness or whatever, a dog in the front of the car could distract the driver and could cause an accident, as for a dog hanging it's head out of the car window, I personally don't like to see it, all I can think of is the 'what ifs'

On the way to the supermarket yesterday we saw a car in the outside lane of the dual carriageway with a Cocker Spaniel size dog nearly out of the passenger window, it's front feet were resting on the wing mirror how could that possible be safe

Jack is in the boot area of our hatchback, and has a guard over the back seats to stop him getting to the seats, and also has a guard at the back, so we can open the hatch without him being able to get out, when we get our new car he will probably be in a crate, if not he will have the same set up as now.