Woman Survives Wild Ride, Clinging to Hood of Husband's Car

Christopher Carroll drove 100 mph for 35 miles as his wife clung to windshield.

ByABC News
March 2, 2011, 2:08 PM

March 2, 20111— -- A California woman literally held on for her life, gripping the hood of her husband's car for 35 miles as he sped along a highway at speeds up to 100 mph.

The woman tried to stop her husband Christopher Carroll, 36, from driving while he was allegedly in the middle of a drug binge, that included methamphetamines, late Friday night. In an effort to stop him from pulling out of the driveway of their Manteca, Calif., home, she jumped on the hood. As he backed up she was thrown and her foot became stuck on the vehicle's side mirror.

"I was holding on literally by the tips of my fingers and basically my ankles," she told ABC affiliate KGO.

"Now I know it was the stupidest thing in my life I've ever done, but I jumped on the hood of the van. He backed out quickly and when he did that it turned me and I got stuck," she said.

The woman, whom ABC News has chosen not to identify because she is the victim of domestic abuse, was able to look her husband in the eye through the windshield as he drove at speeds up to 100 mph, along a highway and through the mountains, heading towards San Francisco.

"He looked crazy," the woman said of Carroll. "That man that was driving was not my husband. He was taken over by the meth."

Police received three 911 calls about the incident. The first caller assumed she had been struck and was stuck to the hood, said Rex Osborn, spokesman for Manteca Police Department.

Thirty-five miles from their home, Carroll slowly pulled over near Pleasanton, Calif., and the woman rolled off the hood. Another driver who was following the van picked her up and took her to a nearby hospital. Carroll returned home to Manteca.

The woman was slightly scraped and bruised. Cops caught up to Carroll at his home where "he acted like nothing had happened," Osborn said.