Izzy Appelt, Editor in Chief
@izzyAcourant
Picture this: It’s a Saturday night and you and your friends decide to have some fun and delve into the party scene. Everyone is having a great time indulging in “innocent” yet illicit activities, playing drinking games, dancing, and savoring the 48 hours of freedom until they find themselves back in the school parking lot that upcoming Monday. Everything seems perfect until someone receives a phone call. Screams of “The cops are coming’’echo through the gathering sending dozens of your peers fleeting through neighboring yards. In the midst of the chaos, someone, a trusted friend who’s had a bit too much to drink beckons you to get in their car. The pressing question lingers: What are you going to do?
Despite the fact that car crashes are the leading cause of teen fatalities, many students harbor the dangerous belief that they are somehow immune to the statistics, clinging to the notion that ‘it won’t happen to me.’ Yet, all too often, it does. According to the United States Department of Transportation, a quarter of fatal crashes among teens involve an underage drinking driver. In response to startling statistics, many have started movements promoting the safety of teens, including three of New Canaan’s own: juniors Meredith Knuaf, Will Sullivan, and Brooks Wunderlich.
New Canaan Safe Rides is a new program started by these three co-founders with the mission of promoting the safety of teens during the weekend and eliminating intoxicated driving in our community, starting with their own peers. Every Friday and Saturday night between the hours of 10 p.m.-12:30 am, New Canaan Safe Rides provides free and immediate rides to any teen that calls their hotline number at 203-722-7867.
Co-founder Meredith Knauf explained how the organization plans on running each weekend. “Members will meet at a designated area, usually the police department or a safe ride member’s home. The drivers will wait for calls between 10:30-12, once a call comes in they will answer and find out their current location and their home address,” she said.
According to co-founder Will Sullivan, the program is also aimed at providing a safer alternative to online transportation services like Uber or Lyft. “Not only will Safe Rides prevent many potential car accidents at night, but hopefully kids will be promoting this service to their friends as a safe alternative to getting home,” he said.
In part of ensuring safety for students, Safe Rides cars will consist of both a driver and passenger member who serve different roles in ensuring the safety of teens. “The Safe Rides passenger will help put the intoxicated student into the car and check if they have any signs of alcohol poisoning or assess if there is an emergency. Once they arrive at the home they will watch them walk through the front door and if they are in need of assistance then the passenger will help,” said Meredith.
The three founders found inspiration in creating this program within our own community and through first-hand experiences with many of their peers. “All three of us have seen someone we know decide to take the risk and drive drunk. Many know this is ill-advised, but for us, we wanted to really put an end to this epidemic and we came to the realization that the three of us may have to be the kids who stick their foot in the ground and start the movement here in New Canaan,” co-founder Brooks Wunderlich said. “After this spark, we solidified ourselves as a three-man team and began to tackle the logistics of the club.”
Other aspects that played roles in the formation of safe rides were the current efforts made within New Canaan, such as Safe Driving Week, and the formation of programs in surrounding communities. “The NCHS safe driving week was very influential in the creation of SafeRides. We saw the horrific model accident and heard the story of the crash and we knew we needed to prevent this from happening in our town. So we looked towards Ridgefield and Wilton, who have had Safe Rides running successfully in their town for years,” Meredith said.
Safe Rides programs have not only been emerging throughout Fairfield County, but even nationwide in recent years. Brooks described this recent movement as something that is pivotal in changing the future of the youth community. “Teenagers today are extremely aware of the consequences of drunk driving and many seem to stand against it. But our generation of teenagers has gone a step farther in this prevention to be proactive instead of reactive,” he said. “Our New Canaan community is making progressive changes as a whole are trending in the upward direction stemming from the ideas behind Safe Rides and similar. Safe rides is just the beginning of many teenagers’ ideas and how they can help the community.”
Beyond the scope of guaranteeing a short-term alternative for teenagers to get home, New Canaan Safe Rides aim to spearhead youth movements that create greater change within the community. “We hear more and more every day that ‘Our generation is the future’, and I think this proves to be true in Safe Rides. New Canaan’s youth is taking the initiative to step up and end drunk driving at the source,” Brooks said. “This positive impact and vision will inspire other teenagers, or those younger than us to create change in our community, solving other issues outside the scope of reckless driving.”
