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Sheriff: "Safe Ride" Proves to be Success
BENNINGTON - The first free-ride program designed to get people who were out celebrating New Year's Eve home safely was a success, according to Bennington County Sheriff Chad Schmidt.
Schmidt had organized the "safe ride" program, based on a long-running similar program in Albany County in New York, as a way for people to get a free ride home between 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve and 3 a.m. on New Year's Day.
According to Schmidt, almost 140 calls came in during those five hours asking for rides and almost 300 people were taken home.
There were two vans and a cruiser stationed in Manchester. Schmidt said those drivers fielded calls from Manchester, but also from Bondville and Stratton.
In Bennington, there were three 15-passenger vans and the vans used by Bennington Taxi.
"This was the first year so we didn't know what to expect. For next year, we'll know we could have used another four or five vans," Schmidt said.
The goal was to get people home safely, but another advantage for drivers was that they didn't have to risk being cited for driving under the influence of alcohol if they had been drinking.
Schmidt said he had several sheriff's department deputies out on New Year's Eve and into New Year's Day, joining other police departments in Bennington and Manchester, and the Vermont State Police, in stepped-up patrols looking for impaired drivers. However, the sheriff's department only had to make one arrest.
Schmidt said there was one accident in that time period, but he believed road conditions and not alcohol caused the accident.
There were other lessons learned from the first attempt. Schmidt said during the next holiday, he would like to have more phone lines available. The free-ride program had two phone lines and Schmidt said he heard some people had problems getting through.
With a proven track record for the program, Schmidt said he may seek support from local businesses in the future.
"The last thing in the world we want to do is encourage people to drink, but I think a lot of people felt more comfortable going out to these establishments because they knew they had a free, safe ride home so it's probably in their best interest to support us," he said.
Schmidt would also like to make sure people understand that the free-ride program can only pick people up from bars or restaurants. Picking people up from private parties not only creates a potential liability issue, but also forces police to look at whether the people at the party are older than 21, something the staff takes care of at a bar or restaurant.
For the first program, Schmidt said, he was pretty pleased. Riders said they heard about the program from newspaper stories and the banners that had been posted in Bennington and even some bars called the phone lines to get information on how the safe ride worked so customers could take advantage of it.
For Schmidt, it wasn't just a program he organized, it was also one for which he got behind the wheel.
"I dropped off my last passengers at 3:30 a.m. It was a long day," he said.
By: Patrick McArdle Featured in The The Rutland Herald on 1/6/2010
