Five-year-old children are hard to forget, even if they are asleep. A Boston family hailed a cab home from the airport after returning from a trip. They got their luggage, paid the fare and tipped, but forgot their slumbering daughter in the back of the minivan. Once they realized their error, they freaked. The veteran taxi driver was radioed and he safely returned the child to her home. While the parents are not being investigated, the cab driver was slapped on the wrist. One report said:
The following day, Cohen was ordered to report to the Hackney unit, where police told him his license was being suspended for three days because he didn't do a thorough check of the van. He appealed the suspension and was allowed to keep his license pending a hearing. On Tuesday, he visited the police station with an attorney and learned he would only get a warning.
Since the child was lying across the third seat, the cabbie did not notice her in the rearview mirror or when he got the couple's bags out of the trunk. In any event, do you think it's the parents' job to keep tabs of their children or should moms and dads rely on the help of those around them?
Kew Clothing
Everybody should make sure that everything is out of the cab before going on their way, but if you are not going to charge the parents with anything, then the cabbie shouldn't get punished either. It's not his kid afterall.
1I understand long trips and exhaustion having done it more times then i can count, but it is always always always your responsibility to keep track of your children. That this is even in question, and that the cabbie got in trouble, is ridiculous! Since when is making sure your children are with you not part of parenting?
2His suspension should have nothing to do with the police but with his company. I can see why the company would suspend a driver who didn't thoroughly check his cab after a fare, but the police shouldn't have been involved at all.
However, charges against the parents through the police wouldn't bother me at all. How could they forget their kid?
3So tell me one thing??? Isn't there a seat belt law now. I know that in Minnesota it is a law that all people in the vehicle need to have a seat belt on. So why was this child laying down? Fault completly lies with the parents here. They should not have laid the child down in the seat and they should not forget their own child. Don't they even have signs that say "please make sure you have all of your belongings" THIS MEANS YOUR KIDS ALSO. Some people bug me.
4I don't expect others to help me or rely on them to raise my child since it's my responsibility. It's not like this child was at a daycare outing with others. She was with her own parents and they should be the ones also held accountable.
5i am sorry. i dont think its the cabbies falut at all!! thats thier child not his that is the parents responsibilty and to me thier fault!!
6
omg, nothing is anyone's fault anymore. if you can afford to hire someone to help you i guess
you get to blame them for your idiocy for unrelated things.
7Not the cabbie's fault.
8It's totally the parents who need to keep track of their kids.
From what I can tell, the parents didn't blame him, nor did they claim they weren't responsible. The suspension seems to stem from the police themselves, based on a policy that he needs to check his cab after every fare. The same seems to apply if he'd left a suitcase, purse, etc.
I don't think anyone in the story is saying he's at fault for a sleeping child left in the car, or that the parents are in any way free from fault, just that he didn't do his job. Looking in the window and rearview mirror does not equate thoroughly checking the cab, and the policy stems from people leaving things like drugs. Regardless of if it's a child, a suitcase, a pair of glasses, etc, he didn't do his job and check the cab once his fare exited. I'm perfectly fine with him being suspended for that.
Also, seatbelt laws often don't apply to cabs and limos, just like carseat laws don't.
9The parents are responsible for their child, of course. I can't believe they just forgot her.
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