Nez Rouge safe drive service kept busy

Almost 21,000 people made use of the Nez Rouge anti-drink driving service over the festive period, in which volunteers ferry revellers home.

The organisation said that between December 3, 2010 and January 1, 2011, 6,979 volunteers carried out 9,580 journeys. Around 6,500 people called upon its services on New Year’s Eve. However, numbers were down on last year.

There was a drop of almost 13 per cent in people using the service as well as a 13.6 per cent fall in the number of journeys made, Nez Rouge reported on Saturday.

This could be explained by the extreme weather – snow and black ice – which had made driving conditions difficult, it said. But it also pointed to the fact that the drink-driving prevention message was finally reaching people.

Nez Rouge was launched in 1990 and has helped around 220,400 people get home during the festive period during that time, it says.