Hatice was walking her dog on a pedestrian-accessible bike path when the animal was run over by a cyclist who didn’t even stop to see if he was okay. “I rushed to the vet, in vain. It was too late,” says Hatice, devastated by the loss of her companion.
“The roads are laid out so that pedestrians and cyclists are forced to coexist,” she comments in the columns of HLN. “Oscar was on a leash, as always, and walked beside me. Suddenly, I see a cyclist arriving in the distance. He’s looking straight at us, so I’m assuming he’s going to slow down as he approaches us. After all, this path is intended for all weak users,” says Hatice.
But the cyclist does not slow down. On the contrary, he drives at full speed when he reaches Hatice and her dog. The latter has the reflex to pull on the leash in order to prevent Oscar from being hit by the rear wheel of the cyclist, but unfortunately, the front wheel had already touched him. “He had hit Oscar head-on with his front wheel,” she adds. And the worst is that the cyclist continued on his way as if nothing had happened. “He just yelled at me that I need to control my dog better. But it goes without saying that a dog can always have an unexpected reaction,” says Hatice.
Hatice immediately went to the vet, but there was nothing more she could do. “Oscar was coughing up blood and a few minutes later he died in my arms. We are all broken”, laments the owner of Oscar. “He was only a young dog weighing two and a half kilos, he didn’t have the shadow of a chance against a cyclist of this size traveling at such high speed”, she adds.
Under the advice of the police, Hatice decided to file a complaint. “I therefore appeal to all residents of the Nordlaan in Zutendaal, if they have CCTV images where we may see this cyclist around 4 p.m. on Friday. It all happened so fast. I know he wore a green jersey and was overweight. A man of about 1m80. I am ready to pay 500 euros for a good tip”, concludes Hatice.