A DRIVER is fighting a speeding ticket after a camera nabbed him dashing to hospital while his wife was in labour in the passenger seat.

Chris Walton appeared before magistrates to contest the ticket after being snapped doing 37mph in a 30mph zone just before 5am.

Mr Walton, 36, told the Daily Echo he was driving his wife Wendy from their home in Ashley Heath to Poole Hospital in August last year when they were caught by a camera on Constitution Hill Road, Parkstone.

He said: "I knew it was there and drove through it at 37 mph because my wife was giving birth on the seat next to me.

"Although I have not been an angel when it comes to motoring offences, I thought that on this occasion common sense would prevail and that given a medical emergency the court would take this into consideration."

He said: "Ninety-two minutes after we left the house, my daughter Katie was born. If that wasn't an emergency then I don't know what is."

He appeared before Wimborne magistrates, who adjourned his case to be heard in Bournemouth at a later date.

Johnny Stephens, head of fixed penalties for the Dorset Safety Camera Partnership, said: "The DSCP does not comment on individual cases.

"Only the magistrate can overturn an alleged offence, not the central ticket office at the DSCP.

"The DSCP is focused on a combination of enforcement, engineering and education to achieve its aim of reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on Dorset's roads, as a consequence of both excess and inappropriate speed."