Published: December 11, 2006 01:11 pm            

Hey, did I go the wrong way back there?

ROCKINGHAM, Vt. — Young people behind the wheel are often derided, but four youths here were honored for their quick, “selfless” response on the road.

“I’m pretty confident you saved somebody’s life,” Trooper Earl Dessert told them Tuesday, in a ceremony at the Vermont State Police barracks.

On Nov. 18, Jennifer Aldrich, 18, of Ludlow, was northbound on the Interstate when she and passengers Sarah Barrett, 18, Christopher Sanborn, 18, and Barrett’s brother, Army National Guard PFC David Barrett, 20, of Delco, N.C., noticed a northbound car that was driving in the southbound lanes.

Aldrich kept pace with the wrong-way vehicle for at least six miles as she honked her horn and flashed her headlights, trying to get the attention of driver Charles Molloy, 50, of Guilford, Conn.

Finally, after at least one driver swerved to avoid Molloy’s car, he stopped. Sanborn and David Barrett then crossed the highway median to keep Molloy from driving away.

Molloy — who’d thought he was headed home — was charged with DUI and grossly negligent operation of a motor vehicle.

        

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