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EMS to offer rides home on New Year's Eve
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MONROE - There are a couple ways to get a ride in an ambulance this New Year's eve - by accident or by choice.

Green County Emergency Medical Service, Inc. wants it to be by choice.

EMS personnel will be on stand-by with ambulances from 9 p.m. until 3 a.m. Saturday, New Year's Eve, to give holiday revelers a free ride home.

By calling 328-8012, partiers who have had too much to drink can ask for an ambulance to pick them up and take them home, rather than getting into their vehicles to drive. They will be given an estimated time of arrival for their free ride.

The program, "Let us use our ambulances to take you home instead of to the hospital," started in 2009 and is becoming more popular, according to EMS Chief Dan Nufer.

"The first year we got a handful of people. The second year, we had a better turnout," Nufer said.

Green County EMS offered its take-home services for the St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl for the first time this past year.

A few restrictions apply for the service. Nufer said the rides home need to be of reasonable distance, within about 10 miles of Monroe. And, calls for emergencies will take priority.

The service will be for rides home only, "not from bar to bar," Nufer added.