Sober Rides from Sheriff’s Dept.

The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office will again offer free rides home to people who’ve had too much to drink on New Year’s Eve.

This is the 22nd year Sheriff’s Office employees have volunteered their time to prevent intoxicated celebrants from driving themselves.
According to Carla Crocker, the director of communications for the Sheriff’s Office, the Sober Ride program has grown steadily, from six to seven hundred calls in its first years to more than twenty-five hundred last year.

We changed our operations a little bit to be able to get more people home. We run bus routes down Second Avenue, load people up on big passenger buses, take ’em over to a staging area at the Coliseum and get people on smaller vans and other passenger type vehicles to get them out to the Bellevue area or the Antioch area. And that has been very successful and has allowed us to take a lot more people home.
Crocker says drivers will take people home or to a hotel, but not to another party or bar. According to Crocker, a number of people every year try to book a ride in advance, but the Sheriff’s Office does not take reservations. The service is available to anyone living in Davidson County, and runs from 10:00 New Year’s Eve to 3:00 New Year’s morning. Those needing a ride can either go to Second Avenue downtown or call 862-RIDE.