I should know, it happened in mine even as we lived in paradise.  We lived in beautiful Molokai, Hawaii when I was 5 and 6.  My parents would rent a camper and we would see Hawaii when ever we could and that is the scene of the crime.  I don't remember exactly what island we were on (hey, I was only 5/6 at the time) but we had stopped at a rest stop and it was approaching nightfall as I recall.  The rest stop had some less than friendly types hanging around and was not a good place for a pretty young girl to find herself stranded, but that is where my older (15/16) sister found herself on this night, as we all piled in the camper and headed on our way leaving her there as she took her turn in the bathroom.  We did not realize what we had done immediately because we kids riding in the camper thought she was in the front and our parents assumed she was in the back with us.  As I recall, it was when we were looking to play a game and wanted her to come back and play with us that our blunder hit us with a sick thud.  This is how I recall it, others may not remember the same details as is often the case.  We had travelled some distance so it took time to get back to the rest stop to get her.  She must have been there one or two hours, I'm guesstimating.  She was NOT happy as you can imagine and I'm not sure she's forgiven us all completely to this day!  Who can blame her?

 Well, if you leave your kid in a cab, it seems you can blame the cab driver as is what happened in Boston on Sunday.  The child in this case was 5 years old and apparently slept through the whole ordeal so atleast she won't have any emotional trauma at being abandoned as my sister must have.  The cab driver, Joseph Cohen, who has been driving taxi's for 39 years picked the family up at the airport and drove them to their home where he helped them unload their luggage, was paid, and left.  Minutes later he was called from the cab pool and told he had the child still in the minivan taxi.  He looked in the rearview mirror and sure enough, there she was, sound asleep.  He returned her to her grateful parents and all was well.  You would think. 

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. "We are very happy that the baby was safely returned to mom and dad," said Elaine Driscoll, a police spokeswoman. "That said, it was an important opportunity to remind cab drivers why we have a rule that dictates they must check the back of their cab after every fare .

I have to agree with Donna Blythe-Shaw, a staff representative for the United Steelworkers Boston Taxi Drivers Association who said: ""I think the sad piece here is that the police are not recognizing the responsibility of the adults and are now saying this driver also has to be responsible for passengers who forget their children."

 I wonder now, if we could have blamed some attendant at the rest stop, if there was one, for not making sure we were all present and accounted for in the truck and camper before driving off.