"I'll never forget that, the look in her eyes of sheer, terrified," said the driver, who asked us not to use her name. She has driven handicapped Access vans for years, and has seen it all.

But Monday, after dropping off a client on 118th Avenue Southeast, she saw a 12-year-old girl running away from a man who was trying to force her into his car.

The girl pounded on the van door. "Help me, help me," the driver described the young girl's pleas, "I do not know this man, he's followed me, please help me."

ATC company rules forbid van drivers from picking up non-clients. But the driver never hesitated. "In this case I knew I had to break the rule," she said.

Once the girl was safe inside her van, the driver radioed her dispatcher and got permission to take the girl to a relative's house. She never stopped to think about her own safety. "Oh she was frightened, the look in her eyes...you could tell that she was very, very, frightened," the driver said.

When the driver returned to work at ATC the next day, instead of a pat on the back, her boss suspended her without pay, and warned her she might even be fired.

"I fell apart," she said. "I started crying because I felt I did nothing wrong."

Thursday, the company, ATC Vancom, decided to reinstate the driver with back pay. A spokeswoman says ATC believes the driver protected the 12-year-old from harm and they agree she did the right thing.

The company now tells us there was a misunderstanding. ATC plans to use this experience as a training opportunity for all its drivers and says the woman who helped out will not be penalized.