A 4-year-old Border Collie mix named Don apparently thought his dog license gave him permission to operate a vehicle.
This morning, as he always does, Don accompanied his dog dad, Tom Hamilton, in a small tractor on Hamilton’s farm in Kirkton, Scotland. Don waited in the passenger seat while Hamilton checked on a lamb in a field.
Suddenly the tractor, with Don still in it, took off. Hamilton watched in horror as it tore through a fence, went down an embankment and ended up in the northbound lane of the busy M74 highway.
Scotland Traffic, which provides transportation information, sent out a tweet warning of a traffic delay “due to dog taking control of tractor… nope, not joking.”
The tractor came to a stop when it crashed into a barrier, cracking the windshield but, amazingly, causing no harm to Don.
“Route is clear from earlier incident and dog is fine,” Scotland Traffic tweeted. “Has to be the weirdest thing we have ever reported!”
Hamilton told BBC Scotland he was relieved Don wasn’t hurt and didn’t cause any accidents.
“It was a fright,” he said. “I don’t know how he got across [the busy road] without hitting something, or somebody hitting it.”
What led to Mr. Don’s wild ride? “I had not put the brake on the tractor,” Hamilton told STV News. “Don was fine and did not bark during the incident.”
“#FeelingSheepish #BarkingMad,” Scotland Traffic tweeted later today.