Canyon News Newspaper
Beverly Hills, California

April 16th, 2006

By Becca Carroll

Had a few too many? Call Scooter Patrol!

Next time you find yourself out at the bar and unable to drive yourself home, call Scooter Patrol. Scooter Patrol, the brainchild of now president Anthony Panzica, is a non-profit organization that provides safe rides home for those who have had too many drinks to be able to drive. The service aims to stop DUIs, which are the source of accidents resulting in death and injuries every year.

Scooter Patrol is a free service that drives you home in your own vehicle, and operates on Friday and Saturday nights between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. Reservations to use the service must be made by 5pm the day the service is needed. The service involves having a professional, licensed driver dispatched to your location. There they will stow a scooter in the trunk of your car and drive you home. After you are returned safely to your home, your keys will be returned and the driver will take drive their scooter away. There is a distance limit of 10 miles from the pick-up point.

Scooter Patrol serves areas in LA county and Orange County, ranging from Long Beach to Huntington Beach. “We actually were operating up in a couple parts of Los Angeles…for a year and I decided to pull back until we got more support and more funding,” said Panzica. He commented that Scooter Patrol does plan on returning to Los Angeles.

So, who uses Scooter Patrol? “The people who typically use our service are 21 to 65,” said Panzica, “It’s quite a broad range.” Currently the service does not have a target audience, but Panzica noted that Scooter Patrol plans on targeting the younger age group, ages 21 to 25, since this group causes the most accidents and deaths relating to DUIs.

To learn more about Scooter Patrol and the areas served, visit www.scooterpatrol.org. To use the service, call (562) 577-7365.