Dog hailed as ‘hero’ for helping save owner who was injured in car crash

‘This was almost like a real-life Lassie situation,’ say police

Tinsley and her owner, Cam Laundry, after she helped save him from a car crash (WPTZ/CNN)

A dog owner has described his one-year-old Shiloh Shepherd as his “guardian angel” after she led police to his wrecked vehicle, in which he had been trapped and injured.

The dog, named Tinsley, was reported to New Hampshire State Police after she was seen looking “skittish and scared” on a highway bridge on Tuesday night.

Officers from the Lebanon Police Department located her but when they tried to get off the highway, Tinsley would run ahead and then stop to look at them as though trying to get the officers to follow her.

According to a Facebook post by the New Hampshire State Police, the officers soon found a damaged section of guardrail on the bridge and looked down to find a badly damaged pickup truck that had rolled over.

“As the officers investigated further, they realised that both occupants of the pickup truck had been ejected from the vehicle and were hypothermic and seriously injured,” said the force.

The officers realised that Tinsley belonged to one of the crash victims and that she had led them to her owners for help.

Lieutenant Dan Baldasarre told CNN: “This was almost like a real-life Lassie situation. It’s really remarkable. This dog definitely saved their lives. I don’t think they would have survived the night given the temperatures.”

Temperatures during the coldest months in New Hampshire, which last from December to March, usually stay below freezing even during the day.

Both men were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and survived the crash.

Cam Laundry, Tinsley’s owner, told CNN affiliate WPTZ that she was his “guardian angel”.

“It’s a miracle that she had that kind of intelligence to do what she did,” he said, adding that Tinsley would be rewarded with “some venison, probably [a] burger tonight and probably some back scratches with it”.

Tinsley also received plenty of praise on social media after popular Twitter account WeRateDogs shared her heroic story and awarded her a rating of 15 out of 10.

One person shared the tweet and said: “Put this dog on a stamp and build her a statue.”

Another wrote that Tinsley is a “very good dog”, with 52 “very”s to emphasise the German Shepherd’s achievement.