BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Cleveland Crowley Jr., reacts while Carson City Sheriff's Deputy Martha Tschetter works the scene of an accident. Crowley was driving a U-Haul truck and hit a fence on Roop Street after he lost control when his passenger's dog got loose in the cab on Friday afternoon.
A Carson City woman was injured Friday afternoon after her dog got loose in the cab of a moving truck and caused the driver to swerve into a tree.
Mischelle Rico, 42, was taken by helicopter to a Reno hospital with facial injuries following the 11 a.m. accident in the 700 block of Roop Street just north of Robinson Street. Her injuries were not life threatening.
According to Carson City Sheriff's Deputy Martha Tschetter, driver Cleveland Crowley Jr., was pulling out of the parking lot of the North Roop Street Professional Center when his passenger Rico let go of her dog and the dachshund mix got under Crowley's feet.
The U-Haul truck plowed through the front lawn of the office building, uprooting trees and signs, and then Crowley overcorrected, crossing both lanes of Roop Street, barreling through a fence and hitting a cottonwood tree head-on, Tschetter said.
Witness Bob Russell said a southbound jeep narrowly avoided the U-Haul as it came across the street.
"If he hadn't slammed on his brakes, he would have gotten hit," said Russell. "Everybody lucked out."