[nagdu] Washington - Guide dog killed crossing Kennewick street

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

OMG! Is that everyone else's worst nightmare, too?  I feel sick.

And that's not too far from here, either.  Another of those formerly rural
eastern Washington towns that has grown faster than its infrastructure.  In
fact, that's where people from La Grande go to shop if they don't want to
buy their clothes at Wal-Mart.

Ginger, I've noticed that even though you're in Morristown, NJ, a
disproportionate number of the artcles of this sort that you post are about
stuff that happens out here in the Pacific Northwest, especially Oregon and
Washington.  Is that just me, because I notice stuff more when it happens
just down the street?  I also hear local news reports on such incidents, so
that probably adds to my perception that more bad things happen to guide dog
users around here than elsewhere.  Still!  I'm not the sort to accept living
in fear, although I do naturally tend to perform a mental risk assessment
when I take my dog out just because I think it's important to be aware and
pay attention so you can avoid trouble before you get into it.  Sometimes
the list can seem a little long because of, you know, the things people
might do.  Ugh!

A year or two before we moved to Bend, a guide dog had been killed in a hit
and run, and I guess there had been some awareness campaigns afterward.  I
was a novice cane user then, but it was good to know that the awareness
campaings had included canes and other mobility devices, too.  Getting
around to walk back then to practice cane skills and develop my nonvisual
O&M felt pretty risky, but I sure did learn to pay attention.  And seemed to
be relatively safe as far as how other people -- especially drivers --
respected the cane.  Most of them, anyway.

I never did meet the woman whose dog had been killed, but it had made quite
an impact around town and was mentioned every time the subject of guide dogs
came up.  I still can't imagine what that woman went through, though, or
what the Kennewick man is going through.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ginger Kutsch
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 8:39 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: [nagdu] Washington - Guide dog killed crossing Kennewick street

ACCIDENT: Guide dog killed crossing Kennewick street
By Paula Horton, Herald staff writer 
 
Kennewick A guide dog died after being hit by a car while leading
his owner 
across a street in Kennewick.
Bernie R. Vinther, 65, and his dog, Kaber, were crossing the
street at Sixth 
Avenue and Washington Street around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday when they
were 
struck by a car driving north on Washington Street, said
Kennewick police.
The car was driven by Victorino Mendoza, 46, of Pasco. He was not
arrested 
or charged.
Vinther was treated at Kennewick General Hospital with
nonlife-threatening 
injuries. Kaber was a black lab.
Vinther had just left the Kennewick police station where he
volunteers.
The crash remains under investigation by the Kennewick police's
traffic 
unit. 
 
 
 
 
 


Ginger Bennett Kutsch
Morristown, NJ


 
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