Ford Repair: overheating, radiator cap, ford taurus

Question
my car had no water in it so i filled it and continued to drive.while driving for 20 minutes my needle jumped to hot and then dropped back down.i pulled over and filled it with more water.i started to drive again as i realized i was on the gas but my car was coming to a stop as i pulled over i turned off the car. i tryed to start it again but all i heard was it cranking.what could be wrong and i also heard on some newer cars there is a sensr which shuts down car so you wont blow the head gasket i have a 2001 ford taurus

Answer
this car doesn't have that sensor and that's not really how it works anyway-you probably have blown headgaskets now-one way to check this is to

while engine is cold (i know yours didn't start but i have to say that)
remove radiator cap and fill with water-let it settle a few minutes and fill some more do this until you can't get anymore in-then leave radiator cap off and step back a couple of steps have someone try to start the engine if water pushes out of radiator while trying to start or starts shooting out if engine does start you have blown gaskets-if it starts and water doesn't push out-install radiator cap leave running see if engine starts to skip or if steam comes out tailpipe if so then blown gaskets-if not leave running until normal operating temp then shut off and let completely cool and i mean completely then start it and see if skips temporarily and or steam out pipe. if not you may have got lucky. good luck