Maryland State Trooper delivers baby boy on side of snowy Prince George's County highway

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - While Maryland State Police were working hundreds of calls for people stuck on icy roads, a state trooper wound up delivering a baby while responding to call on snowy Sunday night.

Maryland State police say the trooper was at the right place at the right time as he helped deliver a baby boy to a 21-year-old woman on the side of a busy highway in Prince George's County.

Officials say Trooper Esai Cunningham, a probationary trooper assigned to the College Park Barrack, had responded on a report of a crash on the outer loop of I-495 at the I-95 split in College Park, Maryland at around 11 p.m.

"I was only able to use my training, knowledge and experience from the academy to kind of dictate what happened and im just thankful that I knew enough to keep the baby safe and breathing," Cunningham tells FOX 5.

As the trooper arrived on scene of the crash, a driver in another car pulled up and said that a woman in his car was in active labor.

Trooper Cunningham called for EMS assistance, but the baby was in a hurry to come out into the world and was delivered before medical crews could arrive.

"I immediately grabbed my gloves and approached the passenger side where I could see the woman and as soon as I opened it I could see her legs were spread and the baby's head was already coming out. I could hear the baby crying -- it was pretty wild I guess," said Cunningham.

"I had gloves on so I cradled baby's head cause that was my first instinct, and had other female passenger in car hold the head, found a towel baby was fully out made sure umbilical cord around neck. It wasn't thank God."

After first reponders arrivesd, police say the mother and her newborn son were transported to Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md. and both are doing well.

A moment Cunningham can surely be proud of in his young career as a trooper.

"Definitely one of those moments I can look back on and be happy that everything went right in this case and that EMS arrived and paramedics were able to handle it from that point on," he said.