• April 04, 2005
• Vol. 63
• No. 13

Wasted? Let Her Drive

Mallory Jones and Her Designated Driver Service Keep Tipsy Teens Off the Road

At 19, Chase Doucet was handsome and popular, just out of high school and planning to become an electrician. But on July 19, 2003, Doucet crashed his pickup into an oak tree on his way home from a bar in his town of Gulfport, Miss., and died instantly. Like one-third of the teenage drivers killed that year, he'd been drinking. "I told him many times to call me if he was in a situation like that," says his mother, Cherie Bates, 42, a nurse. "I still don't understand why he didn't."

Mallory Jones has a hunch. "Most kids don't want to call their parents" in that situation, she says. "That's just the truth." A friend of Doucet's devastated by his death, Jones, now 18 and a Gulfport High School senior on track to be valedictorian, channeled her grief into action. She started a service that enlists students as designated drivers for teens who've been drinking, naming it BUSY: Businesses to Save Youth, Partly funded by local businesses, 30 volunteer Gulfport high schoolers have picked up 150 fellow students since last August. Parents are supportive and Principal Joel Myrick calls it a "wonderful program." But critics, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving, argue that BUSY tacitly condones underage drinking. "It's illegal—kids should wait," says MADD spokeswoman Misty Moyse.

To Jones—whose parents, Terri, a dentist, and Malcolm, an attorney, are fans of the group—it's a matter of pragmatism. "The majority of high school teens drink," she says. Occasionally, Jones admits, she's one of them, though she probably wouldn't dial up BUSY: "I'd call my parents."

More From This Article

The Busy Rules

1. Only fellow students can use it. 2. Volunteers drive in boy-girl or boy-boy pairs—never alone.3. Pickups are confidential. 4. Service only operates 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. 5. No alcohol in the car. 6. No drinkers allowed up front. 7. Passengers will only be driven home. 8. Everyone must wear seat belts. 9. Drivers must call their parents or an adult sponsor and tell them where they are going. 10. If a party seems too wild or a passenger dangerous, drivers must decline the ride and report to an adult.