Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Excuse me, you forgot your child.............

A BOSTON TAXI CAB DRIVER HAS BEEN HELD RESPONSIBLE WHEN A COUPLE LEFT THEIR SLEEPING CHILD IN HIS CAB OUT OF HIS EYESIGHT. WHAT? Read about that HERE.

The police blamed THE DRIVER for not having checked that the whole cab was empty of suitcases and.............CHILDREN when he'd dropped them off at their home? The PARENTS forgot their child and HE is to blame? Have we come to this?

You think HE should have been responsible? More than the PARENTS?!!

What do you think?

44 comments:

Ducky's here said...

Oh stop, z. It's a law that a driver is responsible for checking the cab when a fare leaves.

Seems clear that the driver didn't. He may be subject to a fine.

This isn't that uncommon. Parents forgetting the child is in the back seat and leaving them in a hot car. Parents who forget to pick the child up at day care.

Too much stress in our lives. Go-go-go, push-push-push.

I Want To Set It Straight said...

I have to say that In this case the Driver is NOT wrong.
This is NOT a school bus, he does not have to check for sleeping kids. Whats wrong with parents today are they NUTS?

Z said...

Thanks, Ducky...
A PARENT walks into his HOME without his child but it's the CAB DRIVER who should have remembered his CHILD?
The parent gave the cab driver a $50 tip when the driver returned with the child; you don't think HE knew who was RESPONSIBLE FOR HAVING LEFT HIS OWN CHILD BEHIND?

I'm Here.....I'm with you. Sounds NUTS to me.

Anonymous said...

Z said, "I'm with you. Sounds NUTS to me"

And to me also.

Anonymous said...

The cab driver should have sold the kids as slaves. Finders Keepers.....

Anonymous said...

Hey Z,
It is Boston, enough said.

Seriously, what type of parent leaves the sleeping kid and then blames someone ELSE who was there.

This is not morally right, but , if there is a LAW that states the driver has to check, then , he has to check the cab.

I don't agree with it, it is ethically flawed in my opinion.

WVDOTTR

(((Thought Criminal))) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
(((Thought Criminal))) said...

This isn't that uncommon. Parents forgetting the child is in the back seat and leaving them in a hot car. Parents who forget to pick the child up at day care.

Too much stress in our lives. Go-go-go, push-push-push.


What level of stress is required to make someone forget they have their child in a taxicab with them? Or forget their child is at daycare?

There is no mitigating excuse for child neglect. None. Whatsoever.

Stressful life? Ask your doctor if you need a friggin' baseball bat to your skull.

Joe said...

I simply cannot believe Ducky's comment is sincere.

Not even he could absolve the parents of responsibility for their children...could he? Really?

How can a responsible parent "forget" to check with, talk to or otherwise interact with their children enough to know when they are not where they are supposed to be?

What modicum of credibility the Duck might have had left is gone.

Z said...

I figured most of you'd agree....

WV, yes, there's a law...typical; let the LAW save your child, so you don't have to try, right!? I wonder if the law meant children when it said "Make sure your cab's empty", right!?

Hermit, that cracked me up!

Beamish and Joe...you've got to wonder about someone who'd blame anybody but himself for FORGETTING A CHILD.

Ducky's here said...

Let's try again, z. IT IS A MASSACHUSETTS LAW THAT THE DRIVER CHECK FOR PROPERTY AFTER DROPPING OFF A FARE.

You know, rule of law and all that. Right wingers are big on that.

So he was given a warning and that's that.

You get stories of children left in cars pretty frequently. But it takes a right winger to go into this who's responsible diatribe.

The driver is responsible for checking his cab. He clearly didn't. This has nothing to do with who is MORE responsible.

It also doesn't have much to do with RIGHT/WRONG. The driver isn't evil but he was negligent under law.

Ducky's here said...

Hey Joe, do you have any idea what the livery laws are in Massachusetts?

Of course you don't. So why are you commenting?

Fact is that the publicity may make drivers a little more careful. No harm done here.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Z,

It was a couple.

TWO people forgot THEIR own kid.

Ducky wants to play it off as "oh you know, stress can make you forget minor details like your child you rode home from the airport with, no big deal."

I wonder how long it took the "parents" to notice they forgot part of their "luggage."

Must be a Massachussetts thing.

~Leslie said...

A child is not a piece of luggage with an identification tag tied around the hand. The parents were at fault here. Personal responsibility...a thing that is becoming extinct in this country.

Martha said...

Hi Z, I can understand forgetting to pick up your child from day care ontime but not leaving a child in the back seat of a cab! Didn't they get in the cab WITH a child with them? How busy can you be to forget that you got in the cab with your child and just get down and walk away.

This is a perfect example that we are all more concerned with day to day problems that we are forgetting a vital part of our lives and society, our family! Our children should be our priority. Do we all know where our children are right now?

Anonymous said...

Well Ducky this "right winger" thinks there are too many laws!

There was a time when we knew we were responsible for our children and if something went wrong we didn't run around looking for someone else to blame.

Do you think for one minute that any responsible mother would forget her child is in the car?

You need a law to cover for someone else's negligence?

Ducky, if you are serious, I think you ought to check yourself into a mental hospital, have a lobotomy, and get it over with, not that it would make much difference.

Maybe we do need a law to monitor idiots like you.

Pris

Trekkie4Ever said...

Unbelievable! I cannot understand how the poor cab driver was blamed because of the incompetence of the parents? That is not acceptable!

And as for Ducky, a child IS NOT property, huge difference there.

Children are the responsibility of the parents. They should have been fined or at least warned for child endangerment.

Good grief!

Bryan said...

Let's just come up with a new law so that nobody is responsible. We can call it the Child's Pass It or Keep It Law.

If you lose a child it does not matter, you can say you just passed the child along. If you find a child, just keep the child, pass the child along to someone else, or back to the parents.

No one goes to jail, no one pays a fine, no one feels bad, no one suffers any consequences, and no one is made to look bad in the news or with friends and family. Instead, just one big happy family in a border-less country without morals, without responsibilities, and without God, just a big brother to watch over us, and nudge us in the direction that he thinks is best for us.

Oh, and if you miscalculate your words and offend someone, you can have a big beer party at the White House on the Friday of your choosing. Yeah, getting together and working things out in in La-La Land is so easy!

This comment was brought to you by Sarcasm Inc.

Z said...

Why is it so difficult to understand that TWO PARENTS might just want to remember they have a child left behind in a cab?

And, I'd like to see the Taxi Cab Driver Training "Check for children left behind"..

WHAT?

DaBlade said...

I was left in a gas station bathroom in the middle of nowhere, SD when I was 7 years old. I remember getting distracted with the cone shaped dixie cups, putting one on my head and making faces in the mirror. My 4 siblings never mentioned my absence in the station wagon to our parents. I remember coming out of the bathroom and viewing desolation in both directions as far as the eye could see. Not even a tree in sight. I watched an overweight attendant change a flat tire and work on a car for about an hour before I was picked back up. No charges were filed against the attendant (as far as I recall). Thank you for allowing me to share. It was cleansing somehow. *twitch*

elmers brother said...

I'm surprised duhkkky didn't recommend this child be aborted, it's obvious he's been a financial strain on his parents. ($50 tip)

MathewK said...

Unbelievable, at worst, the parents have to be more responsible, how the heck do you forget your child. They need a good kick up the ass if you ask me.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Maybe it was a gay couple with an adopted kid.

Chuck said...

Z, my immediate thought was that you could not be serious, no one could actually believe that this cab driver is responsible. Then I read the Duck's comment.

Duck, as far as your follow up comments. You cannot possibly be serious that the driver is responsible?

You constantly try to misrepresent the right's morality. I guess, considering the left has none, this is understandable. Yes we are for law and order. More importantly though, we are for personal responsibility.

Bottom line is that in your version of the nanny-state government, parents will not have to worry about taking any responsibility for their actions. We can just blame someone else for our actions.

sue said...

Parents should be held responsible.

Deborah on the Bayside said...

Ducky's comment ("this who's responsible diatribe") is very revealing. The left tend to not think in terms of "responsibility" associated with individuals. It's a serious flaw in their undercurrent - let "society" be responsible.

Since the 60's the whole culture - as heavily influenced by leftists - has been about evading responsibility personally and shoving it onto the group. The driver appears to be in statutory default, but I couldn't resist shining a spotlight on this leftist fetish.

Faith said...

I found another report on the story which says it was a family of six. A big family with a lot of luggage could easily lose track of one child that was sound asleep in the cab. Luggage being unloaded, children running around etc. I think DaBlade's story has happened before. I don't blame the cabbie or the family.

Miss T.C. Shore said...

Hey Z. I'd love to be a contributing writer to your site. Let me know how you want that to work. I'll keep my site open, but then maybe I could submit some of my better articles to yours as well.

- TC.

RightKlik said...

Insane. The folks in Cambridge dropped the charges on HL Gates. Why couldn't the people in Boston drop the charges on this guy?

Give me a break.

Z said...

sounds like the child was the ONLY child in the cab...how does one forget ONE child?

I'm tired of fighting with Ducky...anyway, it's INSANE to think a child is like Baggage EXCEPT in the fruitcake world of non-responsibility.

DaBlade..what an awful experience...!

T.C. ..I can't tell you even my blog address because STUPID me set it up with my real name in the address so I can't give it on line...do you have one you don't mind giving me? Sorry! If you shut yours down, I'd be glad to print things for you under your name..xx

dmarks said...

Ducky: A perfect example of a law that needs to be abolished.

Z said: "I'm tired of fighting with Ducky...anyway, it's INSANE to think a child is like Baggage EXCEPT in the fruitcake world of non-responsibility."

Here, person A does something. So Ducky blames person B. There's no logic to it.

Ducky is like the AFLAC duck. Except he is without facts. Think of a duck, and every times he opens his bill, he quacks

"Fact lack!"

"Fact lack!"

Always On Watch said...

From the linked article:

Cohen said the girl had been in the back of the van behind another seat and he could not see her from his rearview mirror or from the outside of the vehicle.

Therefore, I say that the parents were negligent -- not the cabbie.

Steve Harkonnen said...

Ducky, almost each and every time you post a comment without thinking, and without having a blog on your own, you continue to back my theory that all liberals are retarded.

"It's not the parent's fault! It's the cabbie's fault!"

WTF are you smoking, doofus?

Misfit410 said...

Maybe they realised they were in one of the most liberal cities on earth and figured it was "late-late-late term abortion with curb side service"

Faith said...

If you think I said the child was regarded as baggage, you are wrong, Z. I meant that in the hubbub in which baggage is being unloaded and children are running around and making noise a sleeping child could go unnoticed. It would be assumed the child was one of the ones running around. You can carry this responsibility thing too far. We're all human.

Z said...

Faith, thank you, I believe there was only one child, but you could be right and it was confusing.

Faith said...

What I read said "family of six" so I assumed there were four children. I just read another report and it said the six were five adults and one child, which changes the picture. But I'll still give them the benefit of the doubt that it would be easy to get distracted and overlook a sleeping child. The father was very happy to get the child back so there was no negligent attitude involved. Nobody should be blamed. Stuff happens.

Z said...

Faith, what I guess I'm sloppily trying to say is though nobody might need to be blamed, I certainly wouldn't blame a driver before parents for leaving a child in a cab, that's all.
I think we'd agree on that.

Bryan said...

A video with an interview with the taxi cab driver.

Misfit410 said...

In all seriousness I should add, the more I think about it the more I understand why it would be a law for a cab driver to have to check his cab.

I mean, think about this, you are coming back from a long trip, you are tired, stressed... you go around the back to get your bags out and get them up on the curb, you left your baby in the cab and it takes off.. ok so you were not parent of the year for forgetting him for 5 minutes but instantly you remember.... what do you do? you did not remember your baby, do you think you remembered the cabbies name? the company he worked for? the taxi number? plate? anything? doubtful...

that has to be the most horrifying experience on earth, and it has to make you feel helpless as hell..

I don't know the facts of how quickly the parents reacted or whatnot but, I can see why it would be expected of cab drivers to check their car, hell I'd even suggest they do it after each and every passenger.

Jess said...

any parent who leaves their child like that by accident ought to be bitch-slapped. How stupid can a person be???

Faith said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Faith said...

Yes, of course we can agree on that, Z. I guess I wasn't being too clear either. I didn't want to leave the impression I thought a child could be treated as baggage.

I agree with Misfit410 now. He said it better than I did. And maybe that IS a good reason to require cabbies to check after each ride.

I totally disagree with the attitude of Jess, which is a version of what many have been saying that I was trying to answer.

Z said...

I can understand both sides, but I sure can't understand forgetting a kid...
But, maybe that's just me. I'm not saying those who DO are negligent or more stupid or observant than I; Let's just say I find it hard to believe.

But, they DID do that, and I'm sure they didn't mean to!!