Fort Collins middle school principal stops runaway car

It was like an action movie-turned real life.

Lesher Middle school Principal Tom Dodd and his daughter, Riley, were driving to pick up Dodd's youngest daughter from school. It was roughly 1:40 p.m. when their silver Jeep crossed through the intersection of Harmony and Timberline Roads.

Out of his peripheral vision, Dodd saw a white Crown Victoria "come flying at me." He hit the brakes hard, swerving out of harm's way.

Then came "a huge explosion, like a gunshot," and Dodd looked back to see his back window blown out by what police later said was debris propelled by the force of an airbag deploying. He told Riley to duck and keep her head down.

Meanwhile, the sedan's driver, a 79-year-old Fort Collins woman, was headed westbound on Harmony when she T-boned a red Ford Escape driven by a 19-year-old man from Alaska. Police said the SUV rolled about 2.5 times after it was hit.

But this isn't a typical crash story.

Dodd pulled over to help the man in the Ford Escape that came to rest on its side about 50 feet south of the intersection. He realized then the Crown Victoria was still moving — it jumped the curb and continued to drive along at roughly 15 mph on the grass in front of the FirstBank on East Harmony.

The woman at the wheel swerved around the cluster of sturdy trees on the corner, missed the FirstBank sign and kept going. Dodd jumped back in his car, drove south on Timberline and parked in the lot by Old Chicago's.

He started running toward the car.

Another man, who Dodd thinks hopped out of a garbage collection truck to help, was chasing after her but couldn't catch up. So Dodd turned and sprinted — "like a pursuit angle in defense in football."

In what Dodd estimated was a 50-yard dash, he caught up; climbed into the sedan through the passenger door; took the wheel with his left hand; stepped on the brakes with his left foot; put the car in neutral and stopped the car.

"She said: 'I couldn't find the brakes. I couldn't find the brakes,'" he said.

Dodd praised the EMTs, firefighters and police officers who were "very quick to check on everybody" and who gave his daughter a pink teddy bear. The driver of the Escape suffered minor injuries, and nobody was transported to the hospital, Fort Collins Police Services Sgt. Dean Cunningham told the Coloradoan.

The incident makes Dodd think about why he was there at that particular moment. It makes him stop, step back and put things in perspective. He wonders whether "it was my dad instincts that took over, because my little girl was in the car."

"But my daughter told me I'm a hero, and that kind of made me feel good," he said.