Every Thursday night, Kelsey Crowe risks ending up with a stranger’s vomit in the backseat of her car.
Crowe, a second-year pre-psychobiology student, is the program coordinator for Safe Rides.
The Safe Rides service, organized by Campus Crusade for Christ, aims to serve the UCLA community from midnight to around 4 a.m. by driving around North Village and giving rides to anyone in need, said Crowe.
The Safe Rides students are motivated by their Christian faith, which compels them to show their and God’s love for the community by providing this service, she added. The program started in 2007 and has been attracting more students each year, Crowe said.
“If Jesus were here, he would be doing the same thing on Thursday nights,” Crowe said.
Paul Pelletier, a Safe Rides driver and a second-year physiological sciences student, said Safe Rides pays particular attention to women who are making the walk back to sorority houses.
Pelletier said he spends his Thursday nights as a driver because sacrifice is part of the Christian faith. Besides the time sacrifice they make, Safe Rides students also voluntarily offer their cars and pay for their own gas.
About half of the rides are given to students who have been drinking, Pelletier said, adding that others are just looking for a ride home because their feet hurt or they would rather not walk alone in the dark.
Pelletier, who also works for UCLA Emergency Medical Services, said he has never had to drive someone to the hospital during a Safe Rides shift, but he occasionally advises students to go to the emergency room to get checked up.
Erin Crumley, a second-year physiological sciences student, said she has used the Safe Rides service several times because it can be dangerous to walk home alone at night.
The Safe Rides students do not speak about their religion, unless they are asked about their reasons for giving the rides, Crumley said.
Not all students make use of the service when it is offered to them. Dorian Evers, a fourth-year international development studies student, said she would hesitate to trust a random person coming up to her to offer her a ride, especially if it was late at night and she was intoxicated.
Thursday nights have given Safe Rides staffers a new outlook on the party scene. Crowe said the rides sometimes make her very sad because she sees how intoxicated students lose self-control.
“When looking at girls who are stumbling around drunk, I wonder what void they are trying to fill,” Crowe said.
Although some nights are quiet, Crowe has also helped bring home an intoxicated girl who was fighting with fraternity members in front of their house. Another night, she drove home a woman who urinated in her car, she said. Her longest ride was all the way to downtown Los Angeles one night.
Sometimes students refuse a ride because they think they do not need it or because they do not know the program, Crowe said.
Some students on campus have never heard about the service, so the group now puts signs on the cars that identify them as Safe Rides cars.