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Here's one for the road: Revelers get a free ride

Beach Towing offers a lift to the tipsy

By RICK JERVIS
Herald Staff Writer

The tow company is offering to pick up Beach residents and tourists who have had too much to drink and take them and their car home.

No questions, no charge.

``Around 75 percent of the people you go to pick up are drunk,'' said Tony Rivera, manager of the tow company at 1349 Dade Blvd. ``We're just trying to do something different, trying to help the people. If you drink and drive, you go to jail. We try to avoid that.''

The offer extends only to Beach residents or tourists vacationing at area hotels. Callers need to have a car, he said, and be willing to wait about 45 minutes on weekends.

Rivera said Beach Towing has been offering this service for years but had never publicized it. Thus, few people knew about it.

Recently, the company began posting signs of the service on the side of pay phones, handing out fliers. They even contacted City Hall about it to help the company generate publicity.

Rivera said he hopes more people hear of the offer and take advantage of it.

``I think it's a great service,'' said Dave Kolstad, manager at Rose's Bar and Music Lounge, 754 Washington Ave. ``Any community could use it, but especially us, since we're so much into the club and bar scene. There's a lot of drunks on the road. If they could alleviate that, that's great.''

Rivera said his company was prompted to offer the service after witnessing several accidents involving drunk drivers.

Rivera said he would take drunk clients home and give them a small lecture. But he realized they were not listening, he said. Now he just takes them home, no lecture.

``If you call us, you won't go to jail, you won't get into an accident and you don't pay for the towing,'' Rivera said. ``Just don't throw up in the truck.''