Truesee's Daily Wonder

Woman survives wild ride
Clung to van’s windshield wipers at 100 mph

A 25-year-old Manteca woman held onto the windshield wipers of her husband’s mini-van for dear life as he allegedly drove at speeds reaching 100 miles per hour between Manteca and Pleasanton.

Manteca Police have charged Christopher Michael Carroll, 36, with attempted murder, kidnap and corporal injury to his spouse Rebecca Carroll from the incident that occurred around midnight Friday. Carroll is now in custody at the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp being held without bail.

Carroll is the same person who police talked out of a dumpster where he was allegedly trying to drown himself in two inches of rain water on Mission Ridge Drive Thursday afternoon after a 45-minute period of officers negotiating with him. He was then charged with being under the influence of an unknown substance in public.

Officers were called by two motorists who said they witnessed Carroll driving his green 1999 Mercury Villager minivan southbound on Main Street going through a red light with a woman on the hood of the vehicle.

The motorists told officers they believed the vehicle had probably been involved in a pedestrian accident and the woman was a victim.

The two witnesses – one from Manteca and the other from Modesto – followed the van onto westbound Highway 120 at speeds that they said reached 100 miles per hour with the woman stretched across the hood of the vehicle.

They followed the van that they said was being driven recklessly in and out of traffic down I-5 to Highway 132 and on to its interchange with the westbound 580 freeway. When the van turned off on a Pleasanton off ramp, they were close behind.

Police said, as the vehicle slowed, the woman rolled off and fell to the side of the road as her husband continued on into Pleasanton. The pursuing motorists stopped to give her aid and made a call to the Highway Patrol. The traffic officers reportedly called for an ambulance and had her transported to a Pleasanton hospital where she was believed to be suffering from hypothermia – which is recognized through a significant drop in body temperature.

Officers said the outside temperature was about 45 degrees made worse with the 100 mile per hour wind chill factor that caused temperatures to drop substantially.

A Pleasanton police officer made contact with the Manteca Police Department by telephone after midnight quoting the victim who reportedly told the officer her husband had been trying to kill her. Carroll told officers that a fight between the couple had begun outside their home in the 100 block of Willow Avenue where she alleged her husband had threatened to gouge her eyes out. She came into the Manteca Bulletin office Friday morning after the first story was published on the dumpster incident and said her husband had disappeared after being released from jail that morning.

When Mrs. Carroll was released from the hospital later in the early morning hours Saturday, she was transported back to the Tracy Police Department where she was picked up by Manteca officer Mark Rangel to be returned to her home.

Officers said she sustained scratches and abrasions to her face and was complaining of back pain from the ride on the hood of the van and the fall into the roadway in Pleasanton.

Rangel reported seeing the green van in the couple’s driveway in the 100 block of Willow when he and the woman arrived at her residence. Carroll responded to officers at the front door where he saw his wife inside a police car. He was reportedly arrested without incident by Manteca officers.

Carroll is scheduled to appear in the Manteca Branch of the San Joaquin County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. today.