A dog owner has launched a campaign to cut the speed limit on country roads after his pet was hit and killed by a delivery van.

David Curtis, of Warren Street, Lenham, was walking in a narrow road with five cocker spaniels, when he heard the vehicle speeding up.

He tried to alert the driver, but the van swerved into a bank to miss him and killed his pet Ghillie. Another of his animals, Alfie, was so traumatised he ran away.

The accident happened in Stalisfield at the end of December. Mr Curtis’s daughter-in-law Joanna Curtis turned to Facebook to explain Alfie was missing and 300 people pledged to keep a look out.

Some helped him form a search party.

After being lost for 24 hours and spending the night in woods three miles away, the dog was safely tracked down.

Mr Curtis, 62, who runs a tractor import business, and trains his pets as gun dogs, claims to have noticed a growing problem with speed, especially with delivery vehicles.

His Facebook post on this issue has been shared more than 18,600 times.

He said: “Anyone who lives in the country knows delivery vans are generally driven too fast round narrow lanes.

“I run a business and I know these people are under so much pressure as they are paid by results and have a vast area to cover.

“They can’t make up the time in congested town roads, where there’s cameras, so they start going faster on rural roads.”

His online petition is calling for speed limits on single track rural roads to be lowered from 60 to 30mph, for all drivers.

He added: “These roads have no pavements or crossings. If you are on foot you are in the road. There’s also slow-moving farm machinery, animals being moved and many more hazards you don’t see elsewhere.”

Figures show rural roads account for six out of every 10 fatal crashes.

Zari’aat Masood, spokesperson for Brake, the road safety charity, said: “This unfortunate case shows just how important it is for drivers to have their full concentration on the road, and not be distracted by external pressures.”

The petition can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ruralpet