Ride for survival peddles awareness across Florida
April 19, 2006

By RACHEL B. ANDERSON

The Florida Stay Alive for Education cycling team arrives at the Reitz Union Colonnade on Tuesday morning to talk about drug and alcohol-related deaths. After already peddling more than 155 miles, a six-member cycling team made its first public stop Tuesday in Gainesville at the Reitz Union to promote seat belt use and awareness of drug and alcohol-related traffic deaths.

Two police officers, two firefighter paramedics, a concerned mother and an environmental-health consultant are riders in the first 180 Energy Ride for Survival.

The 1,100-mile, 12-day trek across Florida began Monday in Tallahassee as part of Alcohol Awareness Month. From Gainesville, the cycling team will head toward Orlando, then Boca Raton, Miami and ultimately back north to the University of South Florida in Tampa on April 28.

Each mile covered pays tribute to a victim of the 1,100 alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities reported annually by the Florida Highway Patrol.

Young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are less likely to put on seat belts than those in any other age group, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Florida State University Police Lt. Jim Russell co-founded the Ride for Survival with his wife in order to educate young drivers.

Russell said his life was forever changed when he came across an accident while on the job about six or seven years ago.

On that day a car carrying intoxicated students crashed into a tree. The driver was holding a young, dying passenger in his lap, and Russell said he couldn't get into the crumbled car to help.

"I just remember [the driver] looking up at me with him in his lap saying, 'Please help my friend! Please help my friend!'" Russell said. "That has haunted me for a long time."

The young man died minutes later, still in his friend's arms.

"It's a helpless feeling not being able to do something for somebody," he said.

Besides raising awareness, the cyclists are raising money for Florida Stay Alive From Education, also known as S.A.F.E.

A nonprofit organization, S.A.F.E. uses a school program called Street Smart to take young people into the real-life drama experienced by paramedics as they work to save lives in alcohol-related accidents.

Anheuser-Busch Inc., the major corporate sponsor of Ride for Survival, works with S.A.F.E. to put on Street Smart presentations. The company donated $10,000 for the April bicycle ride named after the company's energy drink.

The company's Southeast region manager for Consumer Awareness & Education, Mandy Llanes, said Street Smart makes the donation well worth it.

Although each presentation is very graphic, he said "it is done in such a manner that students get it."

UF classical studies junior Guadalupe Lawrence said drinking and driving is a serious problem, especially on UF's campus.

"I feel like, honestly, that cops kind of turn their heads sometimes because they know that this town lives off the college and the students," she said.

Russell said the group is using secondary roads free of high traffic, and each mile is specifically mapped out.