Biscuit's Close Call

Kimberley Niec is an Executive Assistant for Continental Engineering Services in Auburn Hills, Michigan. This is her #SafelyThere story.  

My husband and I were visiting our friends in Austin, Texas, and, as we were on our way to get lunch one day, my friend and I noticed a little white cockapoo running loose through the neighborhood. We could see that he was wearing a collar with tags, so he likely had a home nearby. We pulled our car over and jumped out to try to catch him. 

When we started to chase the dog, he thought that we were playing and ran off in a different direction. I was bent over chasing the dog across a driveway as a vehicle was backing out of the garage. The driver had no visibility of me or the dog, but thankfully, the vehicle had a backup camera and warning which alerted the driver to hit the brakes.  

According to an IIHS study, it can be expected that backup cameras can prevent nearly 1 in 6 backing crashes and we witnessed this statistic in action. The driver was very grateful that we were safe and happy to help assist with the catch. We finally got hold of the dog, who we learned was named Biscuit, and returned him to his home. After all the excitement of the chase, I’m glad to report that we reached a happy ending – thanks to advanced driver assistance technology!