Minnesota Couple Pulled Over For Speeding Before Birth Of New Year's Baby

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A Minnesota couple pulled over for speeding on their way to a South Dakota hospital is celebrating the birth of their New Year's Day baby.

Ryan and Whitney Barthel were in the midst of their trek from Bellingham, Minnesota, to Sioux Falls when they were flagged by a police officer.

"We live 2 and a half hours away, so I had to deal with his maniac driving. Getting pulled over, with 2-minute-apart contractions," Whitney Barthel told KELO-TV. They didn't get a ticket, and were able to continue their journey.

The couple's fourth son, Charles Augustus Barthel, was born at 8:14 a.m. Friday at Avera Hospital. It was the first baby born at the hospital in 2016.

It had already been a stressful time for the family. Whitney Barthel said she planned to have the baby by Cesarean section on Dec. 24, but a test revealed that his lungs weren't fully developed and she'd have to wait. Later that evening, her grandfather died.

Barthel said she was glad to make it to her grandfather's funeral Wednesday and wished she could have told him that he was having another grandson. "That was hard, knowing that he wouldn't get to know that the baby was here," she told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "I know he'd be happy."

The Barthels said they were glad that their son could be born on the first day of the new year, although Whitney joked that she had hoped he would be born in 2015 to "get him onto this year's taxes."

Ryan Barthel said the family's drive home from the hospital would be much slower than the drive there.