Car accelerates to 120 mph on its own
An image from a police dash camera shows the Honda Pilot that was going more than 100 miles per hour. Minnesota State Patrol

A Minnesota teen thought he was going to die when his car suddenly accelerated on its own to speeds reaching 120 mph.

It was 20 minutes of terror for 18-year-old Sam Dutcher when the car's computer took over and sent the car on a wild ride.

"I thought, 'Hey, this thing is accelerating and my foot is not on the gas," Dutcher told WDAY-TV.

He called 911 as the car took him for the terror-filled ride on the rural road in Clay County.

The brakes didn't respond and the computer wouldn't let him shift into neutral.

Police tried to put stop sticks down to pop the car's tires but it was moving too quickly for them to get the sticks down before the car passed.

"My mind started to go, 'I am going to die tonight,'" Dutcher told WDAY-TV.

When police realized the car was headed for a T intersection they came up with a desperate plan to stop the car.

A state trooper gunned his Dodge Charger to nearly 140 mph to get ahead of the Honda. He then got in front of the Honda and slowed down. Another officer told the teen to steer into the back of the police car.

"That was really all I could think of that was going to get him stopped in time," Minnesota Trooper Zach Gruver told the Associated Press. "We kind of just ran out of time and distance. I really didn't know of any other way."

The maneuver worked and the car stopped after the 2022 Honda's crash mitigation system went into action and slowed the Pilot before it slammed into the police car.

"It hit me then that this really just happened. At that point, I just started to freak out," Dutcher said.

A Honda spokeswoman told the Associated Press that the family should take the crashed vehicle to a dealership for an inspection to determine what malfunction.

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