It recently set up shop in Frederick County.
A new non-profit has set up shop in Frederick to help reduce the number of drunken driving crashes. SOS Safe Ride is not a taxi service, and it’s not Uber. President Wayne Dorsey, who founded the non-profit, says individuals who have had too much to drink can call or text SOS Safe Ride, and drivers will take them home—in their own car.
“Two people show up. One person will drive your car. The other person will follow behind in our company car. And then when we get to your house, we give you back the keys and we leave. Easy enough,” he says.
The number to call or text is 240-722-7422
Dorsey says he worked for a similar program a few years ago while attending the University of West Virginia. A friend asked him if he could help. “I started doing it. And after a year, I started to realize I was still doing it,” he says “For all intense and purposes, I fell in love with it.”
He says he does stand-up comedy, and brought the idea to Frederick. “It seems that everybody down here that goes to the bar regularly has their badge of honor DUI,” he says. “Originally, I thought I was going to Pittsburgh with the idea, and when I heard that, I said ‘I think Frederick is the best place to go.'”
Recently, SOS Safe Ride held a launch party in Frederick and picked up the support of the Mayor and Police Chief. “On that very night, we did 30 rides and got done by six in the morning. That was a lot of fun. Since then, we done almost 400 rides,” he says. “It’s been almost an overnight success for this thing because it’s cool service.”
During the launch party, Anheuser-Busch presented SOS Safe Ride with a giant check to help cover expenses. Dorsey says the organization is a non-profit, and is looking for partners and donations to keep it going. He says Mountain Motors provides SOS Safe Ride with free company cars.
He also says the drivers get a lot of pleasure out providing rides to persons who are too intoxicated to get behind the wheel. “They not only have a cool jobs, where they’re making money, of course, but also they are doing a good thing and it’s for a good cause. And everyone of them just enjoys every minute of it,” says Dorsey.
There is a charge for the ride home, but Dorsey says the first ride is free.
He says if this service continues to be successful, it could be expanded to other jurisdictions. “We’ll start here in Frederick County, and as we move on, we’ll probably go to either Montgomery County, maybe College Park. It depends on where the wind takes us so to speak. The goal for right now is to try to tackle Maryland as much as we can and see where we go from here,”: he says.
“We want to be so good that one day, we are no longer needed anymore,” says Dorsey.