Baby tragedy in traffic snarl-up
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, October 2, 2012
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A woman who went into premature labor lost her baby after she and her husband got stuck in a traffic jam in Jiangsu Province. |
A woman who went into premature labor lost her baby after she and her husband got stuck in a traffic jam in Jiangsu Province.
A policy making expressways toll-free for the holidays caused severe congestion natiowide on Sunday.
Police in Suzhou received a desperate call for help in the morning.
A man, surnamed Ji, told police his wife was just six months pregnant but had gone into labor.
The couple, from Kunshan, had been on their way to Yangzhou, another city in the north of Jiangsu, to attend the 70th birthday party of a relative.
Ji said the couple left home as early as 6:30am to avoid the peak traffic period only to find they became stuck traffic after they entered the expressway linking Shanghai and Nanjing.
It usually took about three hours from Kunshan to Yangzhou, Ji said. However, the traffic was moving so slowly that, three hours after they had left home they had only driven some 25 kilometers.
At around 10am, the emergency occured. "My mind turned blank in a sudden, and I did not know what to do," Ji said.
Traffic officer Yin Zuoming said they started directing Ji toward the nearest exit because police vehicles could not get through.
"Police cars could not reach them due to the heavy traffic," Yin said. While police were clearing traffic on the expressway, they posted a message online asking vehicles to clear a way for Ji's car.
After more than half an hour, Ji's car arrived in Suzhou. With police vehicles helping clear a route, the woman, surnamed Shen, was rushed to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Suzhou University.
Doctors said too long a time had elapsed since labor began and the baby was too small to survive.
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