Safety Patrol Driver Rescues Dogs Loose on Highway
When Ralph Valenteen gets a call about a dog running loose on the highway, it’s not always a happy ending.
But that wasn’t the case recently when the Pennsylvania Turnpike Devault Safety Patrol Driver was able to return two lost dogs to their home safe and sound.
The call came into the Turnpike’s Traffic Operations Center around 2 p.m. Nov. 9, reporting two dogs walking on the shoulder of the highway, Traffic Operations Center Manager Nathan Keel said.
This was around mile marker 304.5 between the Morgantown and Downingtown interchanges, and needless to say, that’s not the safest place for a dog. So, the Traffic Ops Center alerted Valenteen, who headed out to the scene, not quite sure what he would find.
“The backlog was probably a mile and a half long,” Valenteen described pulling up to the shoulder of the road, where he was relieved to find a few customers trying to corral two large dogs.
The dogs were exhausted and smelled like a swamp, Valenteen said, and he got them loaded up in his Safety Patrol truck, where he gave them some water that they eagerly lapped up.
“We became good friends for an hour or so,” he said.
But now that he had the dogs, Valenteen wasn’t sure where they should go. Dispatcher John Kibe called around to local shelters and Chester County 911 but found no reports of missing dogs, so Valenteen took the dogs to an area animal hospital to see if they were microchipped. That’s where the vet found a serial number on the electric-fence collar one of the dogs wore and was able to contact the owners.
The owners were thrilled to have their dogs home for a happy reunion. It was apparently the large male dog who broke out of yard, leading the female on an adventure 10 miles away from home on the Turnpike.
“Whatever he does, she follows him,” Valenteen said the owners told him. “So, when he broke out, she broke out, too.”
Keel said the Ops Center and Maintenance worked together for about three hours to make sure the dogs were returned safely.
“It takes good communication from both parties,” Keel said about the efforts. “It’s always a good feeling when you can reunite the dogs with their owners and have a positive outcome.”
For Valenteen, he has seen it all in his 25 years with the Turnpike.
“I respond to everything,” Valenteen said. “What I like best is when it has a happy ending.”
By Steve Marroni, PA Turnpike Commission, Communications Specialist