Door to Door : ‘Safe Ride’ Will Drive if Teens Drink

Westside teen-agers who have been drinking and don’t want to drive can call on their contemporaries for a ride home under a new program called Safe Ride.

Any teen-ager can call (213) 451-9111 for door-to-door transportation. The callers are guaranteed anonymity, with no reports to their parents or others. The important thing is that they get home safely.

Westside Safe Ride, which operates each Friday and Saturday from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., was founded in February by two Westlake School seniors, Eden Alswang and Diane Adelberg, as part of a community service project.

Concerned by extensive alcohol and drug use among young people and inspired by the successful San Fernando Valley Safe Ride program, the two girls decided to duplicate the Valley’s effort on the Westside.

Their efforts impressed Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center President Leonard L. LaBella, and the hospital has provided Safe Ride with an office, dispatching equipment, telephones and a car telephone.

Adelberg said that about 170 people, including students, parents and teachers, are involved in Westside Safe Ride. Most of the volunteers are from Westlake, Harvard and Crossroads schools. Also involved are students from Santa Monica High School, Bel-Air Prep School, University High School and Windward School.

Each shift at Safe Ride must have at least three students and one adult volunteer. One person acts as dispatcher, one as a driver and one as assistant to the driver. Each driving team is composed of a boy and a girl. Drivers must have their own cars. Safe Ride will pay for their gas if necessary.

According to an informational packet prepared by Alswang and Adelberg, volunteers receive extensive training including emergency medical procedures, self defense and basic car mechanics and instruction on the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse.

Training involves the Santa Monica Hospital Emergency Room staff, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Santa Monica Police Department and the Commission on Assaults Against Women. Students receive about 12 hours of training.

One of the student volunteers, a Santa Monica High School senior who asked that his name not be used, said, “My story is a little different. . . . I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’ve been sober 17 months. I have lost friends in accidents where alcohol or drugs were being used. One was a friend I went through rehabilitation with, but he went back to drinking.

“Nothing scares me more than someone who gets into a car and has been drinking.”