Another pony killed on the B3078 last night. I don't know whether the driver reported it and I don't know the circumstances of this particular event so won't comment on them - it's just another terrible illustration of what we are up against. I would like to see the law on "Failure to report" enforced properly so that the police and the agisters have the chance to analyse what happened and whether the driver was at fault before the evidence has disappeared and the driver has ...had time to concoct a good story. The law says that an accident must be reported as soon as REASONABLY PRACTICABLE and in any event within 24 hours. Most people read that as meaning that the driver has got 24 hours to tell the police. That is not true. The law was drafted as such to enable people to get to the nearest telephone box, to make sure that they and their car were in a safe position, to recover their vehicle and, if needed, to get in to hospital themselves. These days we have instant communication, so all that a driver needs to do is to reach a safe place to position themselves and then dial 999. Instead people are driving off, leaving fatally injured animals in agony in places that are difficult to locate after the event, and phoning (or getting their wife to phone up!!!) once they have reflected on what their story will be, how much damage there is to their vehicle, and whether or not anyone witnessed what happened and might have taken down their registration number, in other words, whether they are likely to be caught. This is cowardly and illegal. If the injured animal was a human no-one would think this was acceptable. "Oh, I thought I was going to be late for work so I got my wife to phone a couple of hours later. Not good enough!
