Dad delivers baby in parking lot in Elk Grove, Calif.

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ELK GROVE, Calif., May 7 (UPI) -- A California man said he delivered his wife's baby in a store parking lot after his frantic race to the hospital, punctuated by delays, proved too long.

Fritz Rosales of Elk Grove noted a nearly-empty gas tank in his car as he drove his wife Josephine to the hospital for the delivery, three weeks early, of their fifth child late Friday. Their rush to East Sacramento Hospital was delayed by a freight train of 80 to 90 cars, blocking the road, followed by a 30- to 40-car train in the opposite direction, The Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.

"Stay calm," Rosales said he told himself.

He pulled into a gas station, but his wife persuaded him this wasn't the time to gas up the car, he said.

"We gotta go," she said.

Back on the road he sped around a slower car, pulled into a Sam's Club parking lot, called 911 and delivered the baby on the car seat, the newspaper said. The baby, a boy, arrived moments before a fire engine did.

"The baby is good," Josephine Rosales later said. "Dad did a good job."