Farmer seriously hurt in car crash is saved after faithful dog runs to raise the alarm

A grandad left badly hurt after his car crashed down a hillside was saved when his faithful dog ran half a mile to raise the alarm. Donald McGregor, 62, suffered a punctured lung, fractured vertebrae and broken ribs after his motor overturned on a remote farm track in the dead of night. But his hero terrier Zulu was unhurt in the crash — and it raced to Donald's daughter Sheila's house nearby to get her attention.



Worried Sheila then went out searching for her stricken father and found him crying out for help as he lay injured. Sheila, who lives on the tiny isle of Kerrera, off Oban, Argyll, said: "It was strange the dog just turning up, so straight away I thought something must have happened. I went out on my quad bike and heard my dad shouting. His car had overturned on the track and he'd been thrown out down a steep slope."

Sheila had no mobile phone signal and was forced to leave her dad while she sped home to call for help. And the rescue mission faced a further setback when the RAF Sea King helicopter which was called out to airlift Donald off the island could not leave Prestwick because of freezing rain. Sheila said: "They couldn't guarantee me a time when the helicopter would arrive so I cancelled it." Instead, her husband Corrie Louw managed to carry Donald 30 metres up the slope to the quad bike so Sheila could drive him to a waiting ferry.



But the drama was still not over as they rushed to beat the falling tide and make it over to the mainland where an ambulance was waiting. Once the ferry reached Oban, Donald was rushed to Lorn and Islands Hospital in the town. Sheila added: "If I'd been 20 minutes later my dad wouldn't have been able to get off the island." Donald was then transferred to hospital in Glasgow and is making a recovery from the smash.