JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
A runaway sports utility vehicle caused some anxious moments on Interstate 55 between Crystal Springs and Jackson Wednesday morning.
The driver, who would not give us his name, finally managed to get the SUV stopped at the Briarwood Exit.
The Chevy Blazer reached speeds up to near 100 miles-per-hour, according to witnesses.
The problem started near Crystal Springs and lasted until the driver was finally able to get it stopped, some 30 miles later, at the Briarwood Drive Exit in north Jackson.
He was on the phone with 911 trying different things until something finally worked.
Joseph Daughtry, Hinds County Sheriff's Department Spokesman, summed it all up.
"Everything he tried to do would not work," Daughtry said. "So, finally he kept playing with the gears until he was able to shift it. It shifted down to 3 and it went to neutral and he was able to coast to the side. Jackson Police and Hinds County Deputies were able to direct traffic to get people out of the way so we would not have a fatality.
A similar thing happened to a Chevy Blazer in Kentucky recently, causing a multiple injury crash.
Ritchie Perkins, an auto repair expert, who has overseen work on thousands of repair jobs, at Bullock's Auto Repair in Jackson, can't understand why the vehicle couldn't have been stopped sooner.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt in the incident on the busy interstate highway.
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