Accidents

We have received the police report at last, 4 months after the accident. Why it took so long I have no idea as it doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know, other than the witness statements. There was no information about the police investigation of how the horses got out and were loose on the road at night, resulting in the death of my son. 

We were told at the time of Bryn's death that there was no criminal case to pursue, that it was just an unfortunate accident, and that the owner of the horses was distraught. At the time I accepted this. I'm sure the horse owner didn't mean for this to happen. As time moves on I get more and more angry about it though. Sure, the horse owner didn't mean for it to happen, but it did. If their horses had been contained that night, instead of being on loose on the road, my son would still be alive. So why were the horses loose? 

Part of my job involves risk mitigation. You think about the negative things that could happen, and you take steps to avoid it happening. Oftentimes, risk mitigation is expensive, but it helps to prevent 'accidents'. I really want to know how the horses escaped. Was it through an open gate? If so, how did the gate get left open? Why wasn't there a second gate? If the horses had chewed through a fence, why wasn't the fence regularly inspected? Why wasn't there an outer fence? If you hit a cat or a dog that's loose on the road you will kill it, and you will be shocked, but you will most likely survive. You would probably spend less effort mitigating for the risk of a cat escaping than a dog. Less effort for a small dog than a larger dog. If you are going to keep horses next to a road you had better make damn sure those horses aren't going to escape onto the road because the potential consequences are obvious. 

The horse owner sold the horses right after my son was killed. She also sold the house she had built and moved away. She couldn't cope with living at the spot where her horse killed my son, so she moved away to start over. We don't have the luxury of moving away and starting over. Our son is dead, and moving to the other side of the world isn't going to change that. 

Bryn never did like horses.