AN OKEHAMPTON woman in labour had to be given a police escort to hospital in Exeter after becoming stuck in heavy traffic. Nicky Crowhurst and her husband Jan Whitechurch were on their way from an ante-natal check-up in their home town of Okehampton to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital after her waters had broken last Wednesday morning, when her contractions changed from 20-minute to two-minute intervals. Mr Whitechurch was making slow progress on the A30 heading into Exeter, when he managed to flag down a marked police car that had just finished a traffic training exercise nearby. The police escorted their car along the dual-carriageway and then one of the officers took the wheel, manoeuvring them through the traffic. The police escort helped them make the quarter of an hour journey in a fraction of the time. The contractions subsided once the couple reached the hospital and baby Savannah Whitechurch was born within two hours. Mr Whitechurch said the police?s actions had been above and beyond the call of duty.
