An 18-year-old and his mother have reunited with a Minnesota state trooper after the officer saved the teen's life during a runaway car incident.
Sam and Catherine Dutcher met with Trooper Zach Gruver days after Gruver risked his life on Sept. 17 to stop an out-of-control car Sam Dutcher was driving, with the incident unfolding first in Minnesota and then in North Dakota.
"It was incredible to get a chance to meet the officer that saved my son. And to think about him risking his life to save my son was just, it was amazing," Catherine Dutcher told "Good Morning America."
Catherine Dutcher had made the 911 call that Tuesday when she was following her son in another car but realized the car he was driving, a 2022 white Honda Pilot, had somehow malfunctioned.
"My son is driving the car currently 'cause I'm in the loaner car and he is going down County 17 and can't get the car to slow down or stop," Catherine Dutcher said in an audio recording of the 911 call released by the Cass County Sheriff's Office.
Sam Dutcher told "GMA" he tried everything he could to stop the car during the harrowing incident, which lasted approximately 20 minutes. The teen said it "felt like an eternity" and added that he didn't think he would survive.
"I don't think this is going to stop. I'm going to hit the end of the road and I'm going to die," Sam Dutcher recalled thinking.
Officer reunites with boy he rescued 11 years agoThe high-speed rescue was caught on body camera footage shared by the Minnesota State Patrol and Clay County Sheriff's Office. Gruver was one of the responding officers at the time.
"Over the radio, it was there that he was doing 80 to 90 miles an hour. And when I caught up to him, I hit my radar and he was at 113," Gruver told "GMA."
When Gruver caught up to Sam Dutcher, he knew the road would soon split and there wasn't enough time to disable the malfunctioning car's tires.
So he made a quick decision and sped up in front of the Honda Pilot to take the impact of the ensuing crash.
"It was kind of just, get in front of them and try to get him stopped. It was definitely a big relief," Gruver said. "If we wouldn't have been able to get it stopped, I don't think Sam would be here to talk about it."
Sam Dutcher walked away with only minor injuries following the crash.
"We are grateful that the customer is safe," Honda said in a statement to ABC News. The company added, "We cannot speculate about the issue experienced by the customer without a detailed inspection of the vehicle. We encourage the family to have the vehicle towed to an authorized Honda dealer to enable that inspection."
The Dutchers said they took the Honda Pilot to a dealership, and the car is now in storage.
