Nanaimo taxi driver helps deliver baby in back of cab

A Nanaimo taxi driver helped deliver a newborn baby in the back of his cab Thursday.

"Oh there's the baby," Ron, the Yellow Cab driver, says on the cellphone video recording he took of the ordeal.

"It was amazing to hear this baby cry for the first time," he told CTV News.

The driver had just picked up the expectant couple and their young child.

"We are going to the hospital, he brings out some baby stuff and I'm like, Oh she's prego," he says.

Ron knew he likely wasn't going to make the 10-minute drive to the hospital before the baby arrived.

"I'm like, 'You guys don't need a cab, you need an ambulance man,'" he recalls.

After driving six blocks, he pulled over and called 911.

"The right thing to do was call the paramedic," he says. "They're trained to do it."

But before help arrived, Ron sprang into action.

"I'm on the phone like this and the 911 guy was telling me to put my hands out, go with the contractions," he says.

First responders arrived just in time to finish the delivery.

"It happened in the back of the cab and I was sitting there holding the lady's hand," he says.

Over the past 30 years, Yellow Cab Nanaimo has never had a driver help deliver a baby, according to the company.

"Luckily, her baby came out and was crying and came out healthy," Ron says

Paramedics took the mother and new baby girl to the hospital while Ron finished his fare by following with the father and child.

The 10-year taxi veteran says you never know who is going to be your next ride.

"Every trip, every fare is a new trip, it's a new journey," he says. "You're like a road pirate."