Local man says his border collie hit the gas and crashed truck into building in Colinton March 19

A local man went for a ruff ride when his border collie allegedly sat on the gas pedal, causing his truck to run into the Canada Post office in Colinton March 19.



Warren Jones said he was just pulling up to the building in his red 2010 Ford F-150 when his black and white dog Cookie managed to untie herself from the back seat and worked her way into the front.



“My dog did it,” Jones said. “She’s like a little pig. She weighs about 65 pounds. I couldn’t get my left foot up, because she was on top of that – I couldn’t get it to the brake, and she’s sitting on the throttle.”



A social media post from Athabasca County stated that the building sustained damage as the result of an incident. The post also stated the building would be closed until March 20 to allow time for a structural evaluation to take place. Jones said no one was injured in the crash.



Jones said Cookie, who is a little over a year old, is always on her leash in the back seat when he is driving, and said the only way he can think that she got loose is by undoing her seat belt.



“Honest to God, she was in the back seat,” he said. “She’s a border collie. She never hardly comes to the front seat. I had her on a leash, tied to the – and I guess she got the seat belt open. That’s all I can figure out.”



He added that she has “never done anything like this before,” and he keeps her tied up in the back seat so she does not leave the vehicle when he opens the door. He added he takes responsibility, because it is his dog and he was the driver of the vehicle.



“She couldn’t have picked a worse time,” he said. “I’m just glad Tracy (who works at the office) wasn’t hurt, or anybody else.”



UPDATE: An Athabasca County release published March 20 states that the county owns the building and closed access to it immediately following the incident. It also states that a safety assessment took place that morning and work to return the building to a safe status is underway. The county anticipates the post office will be able to re-open March 21 for regular business.





– With files from Hannah Lawson

