Depending on what the late fee is could be why the dad was desparate to find someone - anyone to pick up his child. Better to get the neighbour he barely knows to do it than to pay a dollar a minute for being late when he knows he is stuck in traffic at a point that would normally take him another 20 minutes to get there even without traffic. As we know money speaks to parents both in a good way and a bad way. Safety can trump cost. Many caregivers have a severe late penalty in place to deter lateness but sometimes it just can't be helped. I have a different rate if I get a call from a parent. I also know where each parent works, how far away it is and the route they need to take so if the radio which I have on near hometime for this reason says accident at intersection of or traffic backed up from X RD to Y Rd then I know that parent is going to be legitimately late as compared to late cause they stopped to do errands.