Kelsey Landauer ’12
Staff Writer
Unfortunately, the safest rides in town will not be able to provide their services on Halloween night.
Although Safe Rides pledges to be open every Saturday night, this policy excludes holidays. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, the Safe Rides Board of Directors also took into consideration other factors such as safety of pedestrians when deciding on whether or not they would be open on the night of Halloween.
“I’m sure we would be used a lot that night, but with little (and older) kids running around and crossing the streets in the dark, it’s just too dangerous and risky for our volunteers,” said Alex Dulin ‘10, founder of Westport Safe Rides. The decision is mindful of liability conflicts that could emerge.
Though there were rumors Safe Rides was closed on the night of Homecoming, they stuck with their commitment to be open, and found a few willing volunteers to work on that night. “The night went very smoothly,” said Jenny Johnston ’10, the treasurer of Safe Rides.
With an average of 20 calls every Saturday night, it is difficult to argue against the success and utility of the one-year old Safe Rides Program.
On the topic of the future of Safe Rides and possible expansion of their services, the board of directors is definitely enthusiastic. “I’m sure we would have not just have a program that worked two nights a weekend but also one that could have more than two cars out on the road at a time,” said Collin Carroll ’10. The team tries to supply at least three cars on the nights they know that they will be receiving the most calls, but as Dulin put it, “we can only do so much.”
Along with Dulin, who founded the Safe Rides program, the Board of Directors and numerous volunteers are what truly contribute to the functionality of a program that requires endless time and effort. Since the start of the Safe Rides program last year, the logistics have been running smoothly ever since. The key to operation is ensuring that there are six available, trained volunteers every Saturday. This task is left up to Mac Mombello ’10, Jake McCambley ’11, and Seth Cadan ’10.
Before a volunteer is considered qualified, they must participate in a one day informational session, two days of actual training, and learning about their job as a volunteer.
“The only real way to make sure that people are driving safe, however, is to wait and hear feedback from anyone who has used the program and so see what they thought about their driver,” Mombello said. However, the Board of Directors does take unsafe drivers very seriously, and will immediately asked unsafe drivers to stop volunteering. In addition, drivers who have had their license for less than four months are not allowed to drive in correspondence with the Connecticut state laws.
In order to financially ensure the safety of the drivers, they are also required to be insured by BSA (Boy Scouts of America) because they provide an exceptional policy for students. However, Safe Rides has no direct correlation with the BSA program.
When the situation occurs in which a Safe Rides member cannot work on their scheduled Saturday, the most common solution is to refer a friend who is a trained Safe Rides volunteer as well. When this solution doesn’t work, one of the Board members who is free on that night will step up and fill in for a missing volunteer, as it is part of their responsibility as a Board member. If no Board members can make it, Safe Rides will just operate with the number of people available.
“There is a respect for the student working [on a Saturday night] among the kids out on Saturday nights that keeps Saferides from being abused,” McCambley said.
Although the call logs are material evidence of the success of the program, the volunteers feel that “if we stop one driver from driving drunk and potentially hurting him/herself or someone else, it is a success,” as Haylee Winikoff ’11 put it.
