Fare play

Meet our Irish driver of the month, Keith — although after what he was able to pull off in his taxi, “driver of the month” would be an understatement.

‘Only 7 weeks on the road as a driver, you could say Keith Mooney has had a busy start to his driving career — having gone above and beyond to help a passenger on board give birth in the back of his cab.

Meet the taxi driver who delivered a baby

FREE NOW driver Keith is a dad to two young boys aged 10 weeks, and 2 and a half years of age. He used to work for an events company and drove all over Ireland. In order to spend more time with his family and have more flexibility, he decided to become a taxi driver and entered the industry with the help of our online learning platform The Manual.

With his quick thinking and calm approach, he was able to deliver baby Dawn safely into the world, in what must have been a startling and unexpected situation!

How everything started

The day started out like any other — while working from home on his laptop, Keith received a notification on the FREE NOW app for a fare down the road.

“It was on Thursday, around 2:15pm and I was working from home on my laptop, having a cup of tea,” he told FREE NOW.

“I got a notification on the app for a job down the road going to Cork Street and thought to myself, that’s a nice fare, I’ll take that job.”

He drove to the passenger’s house, gave her a call, but there was no answer. The blinds were down, then he saw a woman come to the door with her bags.

“I noticed she was pregnant, so I took her bags and popped them into the boot and away we went.”

While stopped at the traffic lights, the passenger’s water broke.

A phone call to 999 and a phone charger cable: how Baby Dawn came into the world

“I told her not to worry, and I rang the maternity hospital to let them know we’re coming,” Keith said.

But with the passenger, Sonia, saying the baby is coming, Keith knew they would not make it to the hospital and proceeded to call 999. He pulled in on the side of the N4 road near the Liffey Valley shopping centre.

Paramedics talked Keith through the next steps. He made Sonia feel comfortable — next thing baby Dawn was born into Keith’s arms. He used his own shirt to wrap the baby up and to keep her warm as he wiped her face and eyes. He then placed the baby on the mother’s chest for skin to skin contact.

Then over the phone, the paramedics instructed Keith to tie a loop around the umbilical cord with his shoelace — “I only had slip-on shoes and Sonia had flip flops,” Keith told FREE NOW.

“I asked them, would a phone charger cable work?”

Sure enough it did! This all happened in the span of 18 minutes from getting the job on the app to calling his wife to tell her what had happened (naturally, she didn’t believe him at first!).

Keith has met Sonia, her husband, and little baby Dawn since. He has been interviewed by national broadcasters, radio stations and magazines to tell his story.

A massive thank you to Keith for allowing us to share his story. It’s moments like this that really shows the amazing things people, especially drivers, are capable of.

Not all heroes wear capes — some drive taxis.