Pregnant Mom Kicked Off Bus Over Baby's Dirty Diaper
By: ABC News
Updated: October 19, 2012
A pregnant Seattle woman who was kicked off a city bus when her baby's dirty diaper was deemed to be a disturbance to other passengers is questioning why normal baby behavior would lead her to be removed from city transportation.
Any parent can tell you how stressful it is to travel with a baby, but Nichole Hakimian says the problem she ran into this week when she boarded a city bus with her 1-year-old took it to a whole new level.
"He had just pooped in his diaper as soon as I got on [the bus]," she told ABC News.
Hakimian's son was sick, and she was taking him to the doctor.
"Right after that, the bus driver told me to get off the bus. And I said, 'why is that?' She said, 'your baby ... smells really bad. And it's not fair that we all have to smell that.'"
The 4-month pregnant mom then exited to the bus, she says, still a mile and a half away from her baby's doctor.
A Seattle Metro spokesperson said they are now investigating the incident.
"[This is a] very unique situation ... Our goal is always to balance the comfort of all our riders," the spokesman said.
This isn't the first instance of a mom and a baby booted off public transportation just for the baby acting like a baby.
Last year, video captured a Portland woman struggling with a crying baby in the back of a bus. The clip went viral after she was kicked off for making too much noise. The driver was reportedly disciplined.
But who's really to blame when babies interrupt an innocent commuter's ride?
"The baby was just being a baby, pooping or crying, and yet we're saying get off the bus," Melissa Lawrence, CEO of Cloudmom.com said. "So that's clearly intolerant."
