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Taxi drivers in St. Louis city and county say they’re sorely irritated by the tickets they get from the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission, whose agents can penalize drivers for leaving newspapers in the trunk or wearing a pinstripe on their collar. Two cabdrivers filed a lawsuit Friday in St. Louis Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of the commission’s code enforcement system. More than 50 other taxi drivers met before Christmas to pool together enough money for the attorney. The plaintiffs, Jackson and Parks, received several tickets from enforcement agents last fall. Jackson was ticketed for wearing black jeans rather than black pants, and for smoking in his vehicle. He ended up paying more than $200 in fines and court fees, attorney Mark Goodman said. Parks was also ticketed for violating the dress code. He wore a blue vest one day and a blue jogging jacket another.

It’s common for taxi passengers to leave items in cabs unintentionally. “We see cell phones, keys and eyeglasses every day,” said John Rankin, owner of Queen City Taxi, Inc. of Cumberland, Maryland. But about a month ago, one of Rankin’s drivers, Wilma Tabler, looked back to check traffic and found a baby in the back seat. “It was all wrapped up and sleeping away,” she said. “We’re talking a little baby,” holding her hands about 15 inches apart. About the time Tabler was putting two and two together the baby’s mother called the Queen City dispatcher looking for the infant. “I had picked up a mother, father and two kids at Martin's and taken them home,” Tabler said. “I guess they took all the groceries but forgot the baby.”

Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, is calling on Ford Motor Co. to offer gas tank shields for Crown Victoria taxicabs after a fiery crash in New York City that killed a cab driver. Gurbaj Singh’s cab burst into flames after being struck in the side by a suspected drunken driver’s minivan December 26. Schumer is concerned that the location of the gas tank, behind the rear axle, leaves the Crown Victoria vulnerable to rupture and fire in a rear-end crash. Ford has offered shields for gas tanks on Crown Victoria police cruisers after several officers died in post-crash fires. Most of the deaths occurred when the cruisers were struck from behind at extremely high speeds and the gas tanks ruptured.