Father slumps over wheel in diabetic shock with daughter in truck

04:26 PM EDT on Wednesday, September 28, 2005

By ANNA CROWLEY / 6NEWS

AirStar6

Paramedics arrived at the scene and transported the driver to the hospital.

An off duty police officer came to the rescue of a young girl Wednesday.

The 4-year-old girl was riding along with her dad on Harrisburg Road when he went into diabetic shock and slumped over the wheel. His erratic driving caught the attention of an off duty police officer.The father’s truck was approaching a major intersection when Lieutenant Stephen Ingraham pulled up behind it.

"I just saw him erratically in the roadway…and called it into the CMPD,” Ingraham said.

At the time, he had no idea that a 4-year-old girl was along for the ride.

"He'd even gone up on the sidewalk one time so obviously we wanted to get here as quickly as possible to get the driver stopped and see what the problem was," S.F. Rickards of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said.

Police officers pulled the truck over just in time.

"You gotta do what you gotta do in the interest of safety for the motoring public," Rickards said.

As the driver went in and out of consciousness, paramedics worked to stabilize him. Police took care of the girl until her mother arrived on scene.

“My husband…he just recently started dialysis last month and is on the wait list through Duke for a kidney and a pancreas," the girl’s mother said.

There is no word on the driver's condition.