A Teen Driver Hit His Car, So Cheyenne Man Bought Her A New One

CHEYENNE — Someone slides through an icy intersection and collides with your car, what do you do?

If you’re Bryan Pedersen, a Cheyenne financial advisor, you buy the other driver — who was at fault — a new car.

With his family all packed into their big Escalade, the Pedersens were on their once-a-season pilgrimage to Denver to watch the Broncos play a home this past January.

That’s when they met Gracie, a 16-year-old Cheyenne high school student on her way home from church.

“She just slides right through on the ice” when trying to stop on Snyder Avenue crossing Pershing Boulevard, Pedersen said. “She just slides right into the back passenger side of my vehicle.”

That was a losing confrontation for Gracie’s small passenger vehicle. While the Escalade suffered a dent in its right rear panel, the teen’s car was totaled.

“It had no chance against that bigger vehicle,” Pedersen said.

After making sure his kids were OK, Pedersen said he got out of his SUV, at first reacting as anyone would who was hit by another driver.

“Yeah, I was a little agitated there, but then I looked around,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

He saw an upset Gracie.

“She has this parking pass for one of the high schools in her windshield, so then I know that she’s just a kid,” he said. “And she’s just dressed very nice and was on her way home from church.”

Meanwhile, it was obvious her car wouldn’t get out of the intersection on its own.

“Her car was leaking every color fluid you can imagine and was just immovable. Totaled,” he said. “Then I was feeling, like, accidents happen. Every person, every year in all our lives we brake a little too late driving somewhere. It just happened on ice for her this time.”

Pedersen also was impressed with how Gracie handled the situation. Although visibly upset and shaky, the teen showed a lot of maturity and compassion, he said.

“She was in tears because she felt terrible that she had run into somebody,” Pedersen said. “Then you start thinking about what a car represents to someone like her — growing up, independence, working for something.

“But she was immediately concerned for us. Her first question was, ‘Is everyone OK?’ She’s much more put together than I was at that age. That was not me when I was 17.”

‘Money Started Pouring In’

That’s when Pedersen said his thoughts turned to not being agitated that some inexperienced teen driver had run into him, but how he could help her.

He put out some feelers to some friends and, along with a few thousand dollars of his own, quickly raised nearly $15,000 to buy Gracie another car.

“I knew she could never just go out and replace the one that was totaled,” he said.

Besides, Pedersen felt she had earned some goodwill and is a great candidate to someday down the road pay it forward.

“I was thinking about it all and asked around about her,” he said. “Turns out, she’s a 4.0 student in high school, she’s going to graduate early and major in physics (in college). She’s just a good kid in her school.

“She also works for a local hardware store and paid for that car herself. Yeah, she had hit us, but I felt I had a moral responsibility to help her as I could.”

It didn’t take long.

After putting out a plea to his friends on Facebook, “Money started pouring in,” he said. “We finally raised enough, and I started shopping for what’s available.”

‘I Felt Helpless’

He found a low-milage 2018 Ford Echo, red, and recently presented the car to Gracie, who was totally surprised.

“I didn’t even know what to say, I didn’t know what to do,” she told CBS Mornings host David Begnaud for his “Dear David” segment of the show that aired Monday. “It’s such a huge gift, obviously, I didn’t know how to express how much it really meant.”

The story of Pedersen and Gracie caught the attention of Linda Gullicks of Cheyenne, who wrote to CBS Mornings about the unusual act of kindness.

While Gracie is a little overwhelmed by the attention the national television story has brought, it’s one Pedersen said shouldn’t be about him. It’s about a good, upstanding young woman who needed a break. And he felt obligated to give it to her.

“Yes, she had hit us, but I felt I had a moral responsibility to help her as I could,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to continue on in her life moving forward.

“She’s such a good kid and deserves to keep on with her goals in life and not have this be a moment that diverts her life into a different outcome.”

Gracie told CBS that the outcome was certainly different from the moment she hit that patch of ice and realized she couldn’t do anything to stop the crash.

“I had no control of my car whatsoever. I felt helpless,” she said, adding it took a few moments to realize her car was totaled. “It was, like, something I worked really hard for and something I wanted to use so that I didn’t have to trouble others for, like, rides to work (and) rides to school.”

Pedersen said people talk a lot about paying if forward, but for at least one young person, he’s confident the message will become a habit.

“She asked me, what can we do to help pay this forward?” he said. “I told her that sometime over the next 20 years, an opportunity will present itself. You’ll know it when you see it, and then you can help someone.”

Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.