Traveling With Your Dog by Car? In a Crash Your Dog Can Turn Into a Cannonball!
Passenger cars are primarily designed for transporting people, and their main priority is to protect human passengers as much as possible.
However, when you travel with your dog, the situation changes. Safety experts discovered during crash tests that even a small dog weighing only a few kilograms can cause fatal injuries during an accident.
In a crash, the weight of an unsecured dog can increase to 30–40 times its normal weight. Simply put, your dog can turn into a thousand-kilogram projectile.
So where should the dog go? Into the trunk? That may seem like a safe solution.
But what happens to your pet in the trunk during a crash? The rear part of the car acts as a deformation zone. If another vehicle hits you from behind, the trunk area collapses and absorbs the impact. A dog inside the trunk is completely unprotected and has almost no chance of survival.
In a frontal collision the situation is similar. The trunk is not designed to protect a dog, and the dog’s body will stop against the rigid back of the rear seats.
A safer alternative is transporting the dog on the rear seats using either a safety harness or a specially designed crash-tested dog travel box.
Harnesses can restrain the dog but require strict positioning and can cause injuries if the dog becomes tangled.
Crash-tested dog safety boxes (dog car seats) provide significantly better protection. They protect the dog, separate it from passengers and also help protect the interior of the car.
When choosing such a box, make sure it provides enough space for the dog to lie down and brace against the walls, has proper ventilation, and has successfully passed a crash safety test.