Arlington rescue crews had to use the "jaws of life" to free a driver behind the wheel of a car that plowed into a popular Shirlington dog park Tuesday morning. No dog owners or their pets were injured.
An employee from Arlington Collision Center was moving a vehicle brought in for service when he suddenly crashed into a double-gated entrance to the dog park at then end of S. Oxford Street.
Kim Houghton owns the nearby doggie day care, Wag More Dogs. She said she has feared an accident like this. She pulled onto the street just after the crash to find firetrucks and police.
"I think, 'Oh, my God, it's finally happened. They lost control of the car and they wrecked,'" said Houghton.
The streets that lead to the dog park are a somewhat odd mix of auto shops and dog-related businesses. Houghton said she has complained before about how auto shop cars are driven.
"I've talked to the auto shop and asked them to please ask drivers to slow down and watch out for the people and dogs coming and going in this area," Houghton said.
The Arlington Collision Center employee was taken to Virginia Hospital Center for treatment and was expected to be released within the day. A manager at the collision center said they are dog lovers too.
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He said their employees don't speed down the street when they are moving cars around. By afternoon, county employees had wrapped the broken entrance in orange plastic fencing. The park has two other entrances that dog owners must instead. Those using the park Tuesday said the crash doesn't worry them.
"It doesn't give me any pause at all," John Fawcett, who was there exercising his yellow lab Moose.
