The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX

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August 2, 2011

UPD officer rescues driver when cruise control malfunctions

By Brandon Scott Staff Reporter

HUNTSVILLE — Sam Houston State University police officers prevented a helpless driver from steamrolling his SUV into the main streets of Huntsville on Saturday afternoon.

Gatlin Jeter, 21, of Oakhurst, was driving a family-owned 2001 Ford Expedition to Brookshire Brothers to pick up a birthday gift for his grandmother.

Jeter had set the vehicle’s cruise control at 60 miles per hour, he said, when a truck pulled in front of him near the 2200 block of Highway 190 in Huntsville. Jeter hit the brakes, but the car would not slow down.

“They (brakes) were locked, like I couldn’t push them in,” he said. “I tried to hit the off button because I knew I had cruise control on, but it wouldn’t shut off. Luckily, the truck sped up, but I tried the gear shift, the keys, emergency brake. I tried everything and none of it worked.”

Meanwhile, UPD Officer Rocky Carrell had reached the end of his shift and was turning in his squad car when he heard what was happening over the police scanner.

Carrell recalled seeing a YouTube video in which a driver in California grappled with a car whose cruise control was stuck at 120 miles per hour.

“That was kind of going through my mind, and I was thinking this guy is not going to be able to stop,” Carrell said. “He had exhausted all possibilities, so it was all or nothing (at that point).”

Jeter, an aspiring theologian, said he still gets goosebumps thinking about what happened.

“I’m still shaken over it,” he said. “I told (dispatch), ‘Look I’m about to hit downtown Huntsville and I cannot get this car to stop. I need somebody out here.’ I told her there was going to be an accident and this was going to get ugly.”

Finally, Jeter saw Carrell’s SUV squad car coming toward him on Highway 190. Carrell turned around in pursuit of the runaway Expedition and got in front of it.

The first point of contact happened just before the intersection of 190 and Sycamore, according to the accident report. Carrell said Jeter’s vehicle struck the police car from the rear numerous times, knocking off its bumper, before coming to a stop in the 500 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

“He just immediately ran up and threw his arms around me like we had known each other for years,” Carrell said of Jeter’s reaction. “He was just ecstatic and quite relieved. I was more pumped about the aftermath of what would have happened if we couldn’t have got this done. “

Jeter, who leaves for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth on Aug. 22, said the back of his neck was swollen from the impact from the accident. He was tested for broken bones at Huntsville Memorial Hospital on Monday.

Jeter added that his family plans to get an explanation as to why the vehicle would malfunction in such a way.

“I thought I was gonna die,” he said. “I don’t know how it would have turned out if they didn’t stop me. Can’t tell you how scared I was. I was knocking on death’s door, is what I was doing.”

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