Baby's arrival adds excitement to a routine traffic stop near Grantsville

TOOELE COUNTY — Two Utah Highway Patrol troopers got an Independence Day surprise when a couple pulled up at the scene of a routine traffic stop near Grantsville Friday evening and asked for help — with the baby boy that had just been delivered in the passenger seat of their pickup truck.

UHP trooper Randy Riches said he was just arriving to back up Cpl. Andrew Prescott on a traffic stop about 10 miles from Grantsville when he heard Prescott call for medical assistance. A Wendover couple were on their way to Mountain West Medical Center in Tooele, but the woman, in the passenger seat at the time, delivered a baby boy about 300 yards from where the troopers had a driver pulled over.

Riches said the mother and child were doing OK when they arrived, and the troopers assisted the mother, cut the umbilical cord and waited for medical responders to arrive. Riches said troopers receive extensive training on dealing with medical emergencies— including childbirth — but were relieved when medical professionals arrived.

"We did what we could, and what we needed to," Riches said. "But I was very happy to see the ambulance."

Riches said the mother and baby were taken to Mountain West Medical Center and are doing well.

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