Safe Ride helps lower alcohol-related incidents
While a number of students may consider Friday and Saturday prime nights for partying, sophomore Jon Aperans spends these nights working to get those people home safely.
As a monitor for Safe Ride, an organization that provides a free taxi service to prevent those who have been drinking from driving, Aperans is one of four employees who answers phone calls, informs the bus driver of the next stop and takes care of the riders. It is also his responsibility to make sure the riders don’t get too out of hand by enforcing the rules, which include not bringing any backpacks or alcohol on the bus.
Aperans started working for Safe Ride in August. For some, it may seem like working for the service would be a fun job, or at the very least, funny, to be a part of. But Aperans doesn’t agree.
“There are some things that are kind of funny, but the way I view it, it’s not very funny because there are people who are extremely inebriated and don’t have their normal sensibilities about them,” Aperans said. “There are times I chuckle, but I try to take things as seriously as I can while working.”
Recognized by its more widely-known nickname, the “Drunk Bus” is funded by the Department of Highway Safety and has been providing its services in Vermillion for at least five years.
Lauren Schuur, coordinator of prevention services, is the director of the grant that helps fund Safe Ride.
Schuur is also the head of the Safe Ride Organization in Vermillion and has been looking at the percentage of driving under the influence citations and alcohol-related incidents.
“On nights that Safe Ride is utilized, we do have our monitors ask students if they would have driven tonight if Safe Ride wasn’t offered, and if they say yes, we indicate that we prevented them from driving,” Schuur said. “We’ve also noticed that DUIs are less on nights when Safe Ride is provided.”
A few of the things they look for when taking statistics is how many people are riding on one night and how many people they’ve prevented from driving under the influence.
Safe Ride utilizes one bus for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., but on Dakota Days weekend and graduation weekend, Schuur said it’s not uncommon to have up to three buses running. During Thanksgiving break and winter break, however, Safe Ride does not provide its services.
On an average Thursday night, Aperans said there are 50 to 100 riders and more than 100 on an average Friday or Saturday night. This is a drastic difference in the number of riders compared to Dakota Days weekend when Safe Ride utilized three buses per night, with each bus reporting up to 200 people riding each night.
Aperans started working for the buses because he heard they were in need of employees. While he enjoys it most of the time, with just about every job, it has its ups and downs.
“I like being able to help people and get them home safely, but sometimes it can be tiring,” Aperans said.
First-year Tanner Elle has not yet had a reason to utilize Safe Ride, but he is glad there is a service for people who do need it.
“I think it is a good thing for drunk people to have as a resource if they are not capable of driving themselves,” Elle said. “This way they don’t have to worry about driving home intoxicated, risking a DUI or putting people into danger.”
Anyone interested in working for Safe Ride can contact either Schuur or call the Student Counseling Center at 605-677-5777 or email them at [email protected]. For those who need to utilize the service, they are encouraged to call 605-624-RIDE (7433).
(Photo: Sophomore Jon Aperans recieves calls from intoxicated persons, and then gives directions to their locations to a bus driver Saturday night. The bus then picks up the callers and takes them to the destination of their choice. Maggie Malathip / The Volante)
