A New Mexico father said his daughter was born in the front seat of a truck traveling down the highway in a snowstorm.

ADVERTISEMENT

Russell LeFevre of Canoncito said his wife Elizabeth started having contractions early Tuesday so they gathered their 3-year-old daughter Renee and loaded into a truck driven by his brother, Neil, and headed toward Santa Fe, The (Santa Fe) New Mexican reported Wednesday.

"It was blizzarding outside," Russell LeFevre said. "They had shut down [Interstate 25] between Eldorado and Las Vegas."

"We got like 2 miles down the highway, and I told him there was probably no chance we were going to make it to the hospital," Elizabeth LeFevre said. "As soon as I said that my water broke."

Russell, who graduated from nursing school Nov. 8, said the baby's arrival quickened and he delivered Joanna Mallory LeFevre in the front seat of the vehicle.

The family found a state police officer parked on I-25 and the officer gave them blankets and called an ambulance, who took them the rest of the way to the hospital.

Russell said mother and child were doing well in the hospital and were expected to be home Wednesday night.