Dog hit by a reversing car: a 2025 study isolates an under-recognised accident pattern
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
Picture a dog hit by a car, and you probably picture a road and traffic. A study published in 2025 in the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care by a team at the University of Georgia shows that one in five such accidents happens somewhere else entirely, often right at home (see the study). Our other guidance is gathered in the dog travel and safety section.
Contents · 4 sections
Two accident profiles, one difference in speed
The team reviewed records from a university veterinary hospital between January 2015 and November 2020, and distinguished two types of vehicle-related trauma: low-speed impacts — a vehicle travelling under 20 mph that rolls over or crushes the dog, typically while reversing in a driveway or parking lot — and ordinary road collisions. Over the study period, 150 dogs fell into the first trauma type versus 272 dogs for the second.
The most striking figure concerns who was driving: in 85% of the low-speed accidents, the vehicle involved was driven by the dog's own owner or a family member — not by an outside driver encountered in traffic. The authors conclude that this trauma type carries its own injury profile, distinct enough from ordinary collisions to shape triage and initial workup differently on arrival at the emergency service.
What this study does not show
The study is retrospective and conducted at a single US university hospital: it cannot tell us how common this type of accident is across the whole dog population, only its share among dogs already admitted for vehicle-related trauma. Within the data reviewed here, it does not break down the precise nature of the injuries observed case by case — only that a distinct profile exists between the two groups.
What it changes at home
- Check around and under the vehicle before starting the engine or reversing, especially if the dog has unsupervised access to the driveway or garage.
- Do not let the dog roam free in a driveway or parking lot during manoeuvres, even for a few seconds: a short lead or a closed gate address a risk this study identifies as squarely domestic.
- Train a reliable recall or "stay" before a car manoeuvre, a useful complement to the purely physical measures already covered in our article on the dog safety gate.
- An up-to-date collar or microchip won't prevent this type of accident but makes identification easier in an emergency, as our guide to the microchip and dog identification covers.
Frequently asked questions
Is this type of accident more common than ordinary collisions?
In this study's data, it accounts for roughly a third of dogs admitted for vehicle-related trauma (150 of 422), so a minority but far from marginal.
Why is the owner almost always involved?
A low-speed accident in a driveway or parking lot by definition involves a vehicle manoeuvring in a private or semi-private space, where the household's own vehicle is most often the one moving.
Is a dog that knows the family car well protected?
Nothing in this study suggests that: a dog's familiarity with the vehicle does not lower the risk if the driver does not check for the dog before manoeuvring. Find all our guides on the dog hub.
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This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Dogs universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.