Roads: Accidents
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government will consider implementing legal requirement for drivers to stop or report collisions involving domestic pets such as cats.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood
I understand the distress of owners who lose beloved pets and it is a great source of worry and uncertainty when they are lost.
There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.
Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, a driver is required to stop and report a collision involving specified animals including horses, cattle, asses, mules, sheep, pigs, goats or dogs, but not cats or wild animals. This requirement arises from their status as working animals rather than as domestic pets.
Although there is no obligation to report all animal deaths on roads, drivers should, if possible, make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals, such as cats, and advise them of the situation.
Having a law making it a requirement to report road collisions involving cats would be very difficult to enforce and it is not clear what difference it would make to the behaviour of drivers, who are aware that they have run over a cat and do not report it.
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