Guide Dog Tips Off Trainer to Runaway Car on Downtown Sidewalk

O’Neil the yellow Labrador may still be a guide dog in training, but his attentiveness saved him and two Guide Dogs for the Blind employees from major injury Monday morning. 

Guide Dogs for the Blind Training Supervisor Todd Jurek was watching Danielle Alvarado, an apprentice instructor, and 18-month-old O’Neil as they walked down Fourth Street in downtown San Rafael when he saw the dog quickly look behind them, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

Jurek turned around and saw a black car barreling down the sidewalk, in reverse, toward the trio. See surveillance video showing the car traveling down the sidewalk in the above video.

He quickly guided Alvarado and O’Neil around the corner and onto E Street, narrowly missing the sedan.

According to the IJ, a 93-year-old woman drove backwards down the sidewalk. The preliminary theory is that she put the car in reverse instead of forward.

No one was injured in the incident. 

Click here to read the entire IJ article.