IN THE RUFF

Fire Department Dog Runs Over Girl, 4, With a Golf Cart

The arson dog, named Bella, lay on the cart’s accelerator while the keys were in the ignition.

A 4-year-old girl was run over by a runaway golf cart after a fire department dog got into the vehicle and lay on its accelerator, officials said. The incident took place on Friday night at a summer party in Westland, Michigan, in which the local fire department was using the golf cart. An arson dog—trained to sniff out accelerants during investigations—named Bella jumped from the cart’s front seat to the floor, lying down across the go pedal. “This caused the cart to lunge forward and the firefighters reacted quickly to try to steer the cart away from any people and toward the tents that the fire department were occupying,” Westland Fire & Rescue wrote in a Facebook post. “Unfortunately before the firefighters could bring the cart to a stop and remove the key from the vehicle, it struck a 4 year old girl and the passenger side front tire ran over her left leg.” Although the girl was “visibly shaken,” she escaped uninjured. The department said she was “back to eating popcorn within minutes.”