Navigating slick roads through bad weather in the early morning hours as his latest fare kicked the back of his seat and hollered, Hardeep Singh Toor prayed for an abundance of green lights.
It wasn’t what the Checker cabbie expected when he took a call just after midnight this past Sunday in Calgary.
When he pulled up, though…
“It was a pregnant lady, and her companion was helping her get in (the cab). She was in pain,” Toor told CTV.
“They said they’re having an emergency, (and) they need to go to the hospital.”
“My thought was I should call an ambulance ... but looking at the weather, I thought maybe it’s not the right call,” he said.
“Her body language was telling me she did not have the time. … I decided to drive.”
Taking it slow and careful because of the conditions outside of the cab and the precious cargo inside, it took half an hour to get to Peter Lougheed Centre.
It was the longest 30 minutes Toor can recall, the situation behind him more frantic with each that passed.
There wasn’t much traffic at that hour in that weather, but red lights don’t much care to keep up a streak of good fortune.
“Every time I got to a red light, I was afraid,” Toor said.
“This kind of situation, it’s someone’s life (at stake).”
Somewhere around McKnight Boulevard N.E., maybe three blocks from the hospital, Baby was born in the backseat.
The kicking stopped.
The hollering, too.
Nothing from Mom, and nothing from Baby.
“I was scared,” said Toor, who has two children of his own.
Then, he heard a newborn’s crying.
“I thought, ‘OK, it’s going to be OK,’” Toor said.
“I did not stop. … I was thinking I should get there as soon as possible to get them (to medical attention).”
“I had to make sure I dropped them off safe,” he said.
Toor’s yellow-and-black impromptu ambulance pulled up to Peter Lougheed Centre, finally.
“When I got there and saw the staff running to the car, I stepped out—I let them do whatever they needed,” Toor said.
“They told me the mother and baby were good.”
That call was Toor’s last for the shift, and he’d be OK with not having another like it.
But he’s happy he took it, and happier all’s well that ends well.
“It’s my first experience getting two people in and three people out,” said Toor, who has driven cabs for four years.
“It’s a once-in-a-life moment, (and) it’s a proud moment.”
