now for an actual story...
Setting the scene: A busy High-Street. Well, ok, a quiet high street in a suburban craphole, just south of Croydon.

There's a big hole in the pavement, shoulder-deep, four feet across and some eight or ten foot long. It has fluorescent barriers on the road-side edge and nothing on the other three sides. Sun-reading, arse-cleavage-modelling lout in hard hat and dayglo vest leaning on barrier smoking.

A blind man approaches with guide dog. Guide dog leads man closer.

Guide dog walks to side of hole.

Blind man disappears from view, still clutching now-stretched lead. Guide dog stops walking and looks puzzled.

Onlookers yell "why didn't you stop him?" at workman/workshy layabout, who responds with "well, it's big enough to see, innit?"

Cue a response of "He's BLIND you fuckwit - the white stick and the guide dog were a clue, surely?"

Watching from the other side of the road, I could barely breathe for laughing so hard...
(Chad, Thu 21 Jan 2010, 12:18, 5 replies)

"Just South of Croydon"
Wasn't Redhill, was it? I can imagine this sort of thing happening in Redhill.
( milkybarnick is calming down Boris on, Thu 21 Jan 2010, 19:47, closed)

yup
sounds like Redhill to me too
(whiskas loved by 8 out of 10 cats, Fri 22 Jan 2010, 18:33, closed)

Not redhill...
'twas Caterham
(Chad, Sun 24 Jan 2010, 21:49, closed)

Hmmm.
Guide dog would be trained to do an "off curb" obstacle in this situation - i.e walk the handler into the road around the barriers. Holes are trained for just like other obstacles. Guide dog not so clever this time. ;) Surprised the dog didn't go in too - the harness handle actually isn't that long and one should be holding that when working the dog, not just the leash. If the bloke was holding only the leash as you say, he brought it on himself as the dog is trained to see this as "off duty."

You should have reported the workman, funny as it seems - most council street workers are utter cunts when it comes to assisting the shitly sighted and much as they would like to deny it, it is in their remit and they allegedly do get trained for it. I once spanged my head on a wing mirror of a council van that was parked on the path, and not one of the fuckers working next to it came over to help me up, let alone told me the fucking thing was there. And I rely on a white stick, not a guide dog, which means head height obstacles are even less likely to be safely traversed (dog gets training to recognise head height obstacles, though it is hard for them as its not their natural line of sight).

Sorry, tainted your post with a bit of real life "it actually hurts when you're the blind person" realism there. ;)
(womanwhocanonlylivewithdogs, Sat 23 Jan 2010, 14:17, closed)

No worries...
I wasn't close enough to see the details - I assume the guy let go of the lead, the dog jerked as he fell, though.
(Chad, Sun 24 Jan 2010, 21:53, closed)