When teenagers go out for a big night together, it’s all too easy
for them to find themselves in an unsafe situation when the party is over
and it’s time to come home. This is particularly true when teens
are both old enough to drive and subject to peer pressure to drink. On
too many occasions, high school students at a party where underage drinking
or other unsafe behaviors are present may not have anyone to call for
a ride; or, they may avoid calling their parents for a ride out of fear
or peer pressure.
Mission Hospital has seen the need to prevent teen trauma caused by drunk
driving accidents and is doing something about it. For more than 22 years,
the South County Safe Rides Program has been putting out the message from
the Mission Viejo campus of Mission Hospital. The program offers south
Orange County high school students a free, safe, and confidential ride
home on Friday and Saturday nights from October through June in an effort
to put the brakes on teenage traumatic injury caused by driving under
the influence of alcohol or drugs. Stranded youths can arrange a safe
ride by calling the phone number on stop sign-shaped key chains that are
distributed to all of the local high schools.
The Safe Rides Program came about in part as a response to a tragic DUI
accident on prom night in 1987 in which several teens were killed. Out
of a desire to prevent this from happening again, a community task force,
including law enforcement, teachers, and the then Medical Director of
Mission Hospital, Dr. Thomas Shaver, was formed to come up with a solution.
In 1993, the South County Safe Rides Program officially began to operate
out of the Trauma Center at Mission Hospital.
Georginne Mercado, the Trauma Injury Prevention Outreach Coordinator at
Mission Hospital and the Safe Rides program director, explains, “A
trauma center is a mirror of the community’s health. We saw too
many teens coming into the Trauma Center with serious injuries resulting
from intoxication and car accidents resulting from impaired driving. There
was a clear need for outreach to our young people, and that need is ongoing.”
One thing that makes South County Safe Rides invaluable is the peer-to-peer
values that are instilled in the prevention effort: More than 200 high
school students each year volunteer their driving services to help out
their peers in need of safe transportation home. The students serve as
drivers, navigators, and dispatchers, with an adult volunteer acting as
an advisor at all times. Mercado says, “These high school students
are motivated by a keen desire to do something good for their community
and their peers. We want to encourage their making good choices. The Safe
Rides program has been a very successful tool in eliminating teen trauma
and promoting teen volunteerism at the same time.”
The Safe Rides Program is one example of the way in which Mission Hospital
strives for safer and healthier communities. And safety is the program’s
paramount concern. “We go to great lengths to build safeguards and
boundaries into every part of the Safe Rides process,” Mercado says.
Student volunteers must submit an application approved by their parents
in order to participate. An adult advisor must be present during all hours
of the program’s operation, which is usually from around 9:30 p.m.
to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. All drivers go out in pairs of
one male and one female so that everyone feels safe—both the drivers
and the passengers. Cell phones are carried at all times. Rides are given
only to high school students. And all of the volunteers, both youths and
adults, take part in a two-hour training session before the drivers are
allowed to hit the streets.
The South County Safe Rides Program welcomes new volunteer advisors and
invites you to attend one of the training dates that are held throughout
the year. “When no adult advisor can be present, the Safe Rides
program has to shut down,” Mercado says. “We rely on our adult
volunteers to keep the program running. Please support these amazing,
motivated young adults in their desire to make a difference.”
If you are interested in helping the South County Safe Rides Program as
a volunteer or a donor, please contact Georginne Mercado of the Mission
Hospital Trauma Office. She can be reached by telephone at (949) 364-7754
or by email at
Georginne.Mercado@stjoe.org.
Learn more about
Mission Hospital. Learn more about the
Mission Hospital Regional Trauma Center