The carjacker confronted the woman, a 24-year-old medical student from California, outside her residence about 9:30 p.m., said Lucy Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police. The man, wielding a handgun, ordered the woman into the trunk of her 1995 Mitsubishi Galant.

"At some time during this encounter," Caldwell said, "she had the wherewithal to covertly grab her cell phone from her bag."

While inside the trunk, the woman managed to speak with her captor, Caldwell said. After about an hour, she quietly dialed 911. The woman didn't know her location, but the wireless 911 system installed in Northern Virginia automatically routes cellular calls to the county where the call is being made.

During her journey, the woman spoke with dispatchers in Prince William, Fairfax and Arlington counties, Caldwell said, describing her car and noting it had California license plates. Dispatchers communicated with each other and with state police to coordinate a search.

Meanwhile, the woman managed to talk without the driver hearing her. "She maintained her composure throughout the entire event," Caldwell said. "She was talking the whole time. She basically saved her own life," Caldwell added.

About 11:15 p.m., a state trooper spotted the Galant in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 near the Prince William Parkway. He followed the vehicle to the Lorton area and attempted to stop it there. The driver slowed down but then sped off, Caldwell said.

As the car headed toward the Springfield "mixing bowl" interchange, state troopers ahead of the Galant worked to slow the traffic along Interstate 95, and thereby slow the fleeing car, Caldwell said. As the Galant reached speeds of 100 mph, it sideswiped both a state police car and a Fairfax County police car and then hit a tractor-trailer as it approached the thickened traffic in the mixing bowl, Caldwell said.

Finally, the car stopped on the exit ramp to the eastbound lanes of the Capital Beltway. The woman told police her only injury was a bump on the head, suffered when the chase finally ended, Caldwell said. The Galant was a total loss because of damage suffered during the five-mile run along Interstate 95, Caldwell said.

Police charged Elliott L. Robinson, 19, of Arlington, with numerous crimes: carjacking, armed robbery, use of a firearm during a felony, abduction, eluding police and driving without a license. Robinson, described as a cook for a pizza restaurant, was being held without bond today in the Arlington County jail.

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