Local News in Brief : Irvine : UCI ‘Saferides’ Program Saved by Frat Donation

The so-called “Saferides” program at UC Irvine, in which students use a van to provide transportation for other students who have had too much to drink, will be kept alive thanks to contributions from campus fraternities.

The program began last year with several vans dispatched to bars, beaches and parties within a 15-mile radius of the campus. But business was so good that the university’s student association decided it needed two-way radios to make the service more efficient and the decision was made to kill the program if the radios could not be acquired.

The program’s budget was not large enough for the radio purchase--$2,000--so last week UCI’s Inter Fraternity Council decided to donate the money. David L. Hurwitz, president of the fraternity council, said the radios should be in operation by January.

A student association provides credit-card size cards with the telephone number for the van pickup service, which operates from the student government center.

“If you think you’ve had too much to drink and shouldn’t be driving home, you call that number and someone will come pick you up and take you home,” Hurwitz said.

The radios are needed so that the van drivers can pick up more people without making a run back to the campus, Hurwitz said.

“A lot of people carry these cards, and they go to a party knowing that they will probably just lock up their car and call the van for a ride home,” Hurwitz said.

When some of the fraternity houses throw a party, the student service often sends a van automatically, before anyone calls, Hurwitz said.

The pickup program currently operates--without radios--between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights.