Mom of Unlicensed Teen Who Went 118 MPH in Wrong Direction: “God Heard My Prayers”

A New Hampshire mother says her 16-year-old daughter is lucky to be alive after stealing her car and racing nearly 50 miles in the wrong direction on I-93.

A New Hampshire mother says her 16-year-old daughter is lucky to be alive after she stole the woman's car and raced nearly 50 miles in the wrong direction on Interstate 93 while reaching speeds of 118 miles per hour.

That mother says they were some of the most terrifying hours of her life. Knowing police were after her daughter speeding down the highway without a license, she didn't know what else to do but pray and prepare for the worst.

Just after midnight Sunday, the teen asked for the keys to get something out of the car. Moments later, the car was gone, and her mother called police.

"God heard my prayers. I know He did," the mother said. "I will deal with whatever comes next, but bring my baby home."

The woman says when police told her that her daughter was evading police on the highway, she never imagined she would get her child back in one piece. NECN is not identifying the woman in order to protect her daughter, who is a juvenile, and her several other children.

"I don't even want to know how many people were close calls," she said. "Nobody is going to walk away from that, everyone is dead, [I thought]."

New Hampshire state police say the teen, in her mom's red Toyota RAV4, was first spotted in Tilton, going southbound in the northbound lanes of Interstate 93. Troopers stayed in the southbound lanes, but kept up with the teen as she reached speeds of 118 miles per hour.

"If police hadn't acted the way they did, getting people out of the way and finally doing the strip, I have no idea what would have happened," the mother said.

The teen hit the police spike strip at exit six in Manchester and was taken into custody about nine miles away in Londonderry.

"Until the day she dies, I want her to remember that God was on her shoulder and watching out for her and everybody else," she said.

The mother says regardless of what it might seem, her daughter isn't a bad kid, but a good-hearted teenager who made a really bad decision.

"She will hear that out of my mouth as long as I live of what could have happened," she said. "I really hope it is a nightmare for my daughter, but I hope it is one she can wake up from."

The woman says her daughter deserves all the consequences coming her way and is hopeful this experience will change her daughter's life for the better. The teenager is in custody waiting to hear the charges against her.

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