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OGDEN, Utah (AP) -- Officers don't know how he did it, but they are sure a police dog is to blame for putting his handler's truck into gear and running over a woman, seriously injuring her.
Mary F. Stone, 41, suffered pelvis and tailbone fractures and was expected to remain at McKay Dee Hospital for two or three more days, her husband, Paul Stone, said Wednesday.
The accident happened about 7 p.m. Tuesday when an Ogden police K-9 handler responded to a domestic disturbance call in his police 1999 Ford F-150.
The officer left his dog, a German shepherd named Ranger, in the truck with the sliding door between the bed and the cab open and the windows down in case Ranger had to be deployed, police Lt. Loring Draper said. The truck was running so the dog had air conditioning.
As police were responding to the domestic disturbance, Mary Stone was on her way to a roadside mailbox.
On the phone to her husband, she informed him there were police cars nearby.
"I said, 'Why don't you wait a few minutes,' " Paul Stone said. "She said, 'Oh, that's OK.' "
Draper said Ranger hit the shift on the steering column and put the automatic transmission into gear. The truck slowly moved forward, and police officers yelled at Mary Stone to move out of the way, but she remained in front of the truck, he said.
A front and rear tire ran over her, Paul Stone said. "She had tire marks on her clothes."
The truck then went through the Stones' yard and struck a vehicle in the driveway.
Draper said police are trying to determine if there might have been some malfunction that would have allowed the gear shift to be moved easily.
"The dog didn't step on the brake to put it in 'drive,' " Draper said.
Paul Stone was angry that no police had contacted him or his family.
"No one's called me," he said. "No one's said, 'I'm sorry we did this.' Nothing."
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
