A routine speeding stop on the side of an Alabama highway changed two lives for the better when a 20-year-old driver heeded the advice of a compassionate cop.

Abbie Rutledge felt her heart sink when she saw blue lights flashing behind her ten-year-old Toyota as she hurried down Highway 78 one morning in August 2022.

The then 20-year-old told state trooper JT Brown she could not afford a fine because she was 'broke and in a dead-end job'.

Fifteen minutes later the pair had agreed that he would let her off with a warning after she promised to pursue her latent ambition to become a nurse. 

And exactly two years later he was in the audience as she graduated in surgical technology from Bevill State Community College.

'I think it was the right person, the right time and the right words said,' she told CBS.

The former cheerleader from Jasper may have been speeding but she was going nowhere fast when her path crossed with Brown's outside Birmingham.

Working full-time as a driver for Coca Cola she was 'still struggling to decide what she wanted to do with her career path' according to mother Tammy Guthrie.

'He challenged her to find a career and work toward it,' she added. 'As they talked she realized Officer Brown had completed the Surgical Tech Program at Bevill State in 2013.'

As he prepared to let her go he handed her a warning, writing on it: 'Promise me you'll go to scrub or nursing school, and slow down, and I won't give you a ticket.'

And Abbie decided to take the advice to heart.

'She was so excited when she called to tell me about that ticket,' her mother wrote on Facebook. 'All I could think was speeding!

'She said Mom he talked to me for 10 to 15 minutes on side of the road and I am putting this warning ticket in my glovebox and going to invite him to my graduation. Because I am going to school.

'He did something in 10 to 15 mins that I had been struggling to help her with for 20 years!'

Twelve months later Abbie started classes at Bevill State, and last month she began work as a scrub nurse at UAB Highlands hospital in Birmingham.

'Officer Brown was polite and courteous,' she told Rick Karle.

'He saw me wearing my Coca-Cola uniform and asked me about my career.

'He asked if I had any dreams about my future, and I told him I did. He told me if I promised to chase my dream, he would let me off with a warning.'

'As soon as he left, and as soon as I got to where I was going, I started pushing myself toward that career. And now I'm here.'

Abbie says she is thrilled by her new job and was delighted to see Brown in the audience as she received her certificate on stage.

'I wanted him to see the impression he made on me,' she explained.

'Five minutes talking to anybody, even if you don't know them, can make the largest impact of their life. 'You never know when it could happen.'

Brown too has reflected on the unexpectedly powerful outcome of a routine traffic stop.

'I just like to help people- I talk to and encourage most of the people I pull over,' he said.

'If I can help people and show them that God is good, it's a win for both of us.

'She made my entire career worth it.'