The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, The McCoy House for Sober Living, the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association and AMR will link to provide safe, free rides home for New Year’s Eve party-goers in the Jackson metro area.
From 11:00 pm on December 31 to 3:00 am on January 1, individuals who have been drinking and who do not have a designated driver or other safe way to get home may call 601-368-2323 to schedule a ride. Each caller will need to give his or her name, location, number of riders and those riders’ destinations.
Volunteers from NCADD and The McCoy House for Sober Living will take calls for the free service at AMR offices at 600 Melvin Bender Drive in Jackson. AMR will provide five vans each capable of transporting 13 passengers at a time. Drivers will come from AMR’s workforce. Rides will be provided as far east as Brandon, west as far as Clinton, north as far as Madison and south as far as Terry. Drivers will take revelers to their homes or to a hotel, not to another party, bar or club.
The project will mainly transport patrons of bars and restaurants in downtown Jackson, near the Reservoir and in Byram but organizers say they will also work to accommodate patrons at other establishments. The vans will respond to private parties at family homes when the schedule allows. AMR operations manager Stan Alford said, “By focusing first on bar and restaurant partiers, we will keep a larger number of alcohol-impaired folks from getting behind the wheel. In recent years, more requests for rides have come from establishments than from private parties.