Volunteers drive revellers home
Nearly 24,000 people took advantage of the “Red Nose” service during the Christmas and New Year period to get home safely after celebrating.
Voluntary drivers take people home so that they are not tempted to get behind the wheel when drunk. The service is free.
The Red Nose organisation announced on Sunday that 23,853 people had used its service between December 9 and January 1 – up 13.3 per cent on the previous year.
A total of 11,157 trips were made, up 15.8 per cent on 2010, while the distance covered rose by 20.2 per cent to reach 460,349 kilometres. The operation called on 7,771 volunteers, 10.5 per cent up on the year before.
New Year’s Eve was the busiest time, accounting for nearly 28 per cent of the total.
The busiest volunteers were those in the northern canton of Aargau, while in French-speaking Switzerland Geneva made most use of the service.
The Red Nose Operation first started in Quebec. The French-speaking canton of Jura was the first to adopt it in Switzerland, in 1990.
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