TORONTO: Indian-Origin Cab Driver Picks Up Two Passengers, Drops 3 To Hospital

TORONTO: An Indian-origin cab driver who picked up a couple, including a pregnant woman, as passengers, delivered three people safely to a hospital on a cold winter night, with the female giving birth on board, local media reported.

Hardeep Singh Toor, a Calgary taxi driver, answered a late-night dispatch call last Saturday for what he was told was an urgent ride to a hospital, which turned out to be a couple racing against time for the birth of their child, on Wednesday.

“It was a pregnant lady, and her companion was helping her get in (the cab). She was in pain,” CTV quoted Toor as saying on Thursday.

Toor realised the urgency of the situation as soon as he saw the couple in distress.

“My thought was I should call an ambulance … but looking at the weather, I thought maybe it’s not the right call,” he told CTV.

“Her body language was telling me she did not have the time. … I decided to drive,” he added.

Toor recalls the drive to the hospital as the longest 30 minutes, marked by kicking and shouting in the back seat, with red lights testing his nerves at regular intervals.

With temperatures around –23°C, stormy weather and slippery roads, Toor said his only focus was getting them to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible, Global News reported.

Just blocks away from the hospital, Peter Lougheed Centre, Toor noticed that the kicking and screaming had stopped in the backseat.

The baby was born in the back seat with the building already in sight.

“I did not stop. … I was thinking I should get there as soon as possible to get them (to medical attention),” Toor said.

As soon as they reached the hospital, the staff rushed to help the couple and the newborn baby.

“When I got there and saw the staff running to the car, I stepped out—I let them do whatever they needed,” Toor added.

He said that the staff informed him that the mother and baby were doing well.

“It’s my first experience getting two people in and three people out,” said Toor, who has driven cabs for four years. He called it a “proud moment.”