That's the premise of the newly incarnated Safe Rides program, which serves high school students who live in Los Gatos and Saratoga.

Sober and responsible pairs of teens respond to calls for help late Friday and Saturday nights, picking up peers who need rides for a variety of reasons. Although the goal is to prevent intoxicated teens from driving or getting a ride from a tipsy driver, some have used the program simply to get from one place to another in the middle of the night.

"Parents will never find out. It's a totally confidential thing. We just ask for a first name and a reason," said Los Gatos High School senior Chad Sung, an executive board member of the program. The only role adults play is as a supervisor of teen volunteers during their 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift.

"Some adults believe that we're condoning drinking, which is totally not true," said executive board member Erica Williams, also a Los Gatos High senior. Safe Rides "is obviously not a perfect fix, but it's the best we can do right now."

Formerly an American Red Cross-sponsored program run out of the Warner Hutton House in Saratoga, the new Safe Rides is now student operated and has its headquarters in Los Gatos Outhouse, behind Los Gatos High.

Bay Area Safe Rides shut down last year when it ran out of funding. But a local tragedy caused students to revisit the issue and pursue restarting the program with a more grass-roots twist.

Sung said he was good friends with Los Gatos High senior Eric Quesada, who died after an accident caused by a drunk 16-year-old in November. The accident shook the school—"People were basically swearing off drinking. And then a week later you saw them drunk," Sung said.

Sung found information online about Bay Area Safe Rides and then approached Los Gatos High Assistant Principal Jerry Halpin, who had advised a similar program at a Southern California high school. Halpin put Sung in touch with Williams, who had come up with that idea simultaneously. Halpin also recruited Saratoga High School junior Kate Rollins, who is the liaison for her school.

With the assistance of Bay Area Safe Rides founder Betty Morse and volunteers from the now-defunct program, the group met and established procedures for Safe Rides—a training manual, parent permission slips and insurance processes.

"I explained to them that this program is only as successful as you make it," Halpin said. "If you could get a couple of schools involved, you could expand the number of kids who are helping out."

Launched the weekend of March 28, a teen, driving his or her own car and accompanied by a "navigator" of the opposite sex, drives out to pick up one passenger. Williams said Safe Rides has gotten anywhere from zero to eight calls a night, and on the few nights when Safe Rides has been closed due to lack of volunteers, Yellow Cab has been called.

The requests will be fulfilled if the pickup and drop-off locations are within a 20-mile radius of the Outhouse. But Safe Rides does take some mountain calls, if the available driver has a parent permission slip expressly allowing the teenager to go into those areas.

Safety is paramount, Halpin said. "The kids who do Safe Rides realize our tenet that we provide a safe ride home," Halpin said. "We tell them, 'You're going to drive like you're a grandma.' "

Although the service has been equally promoted at both schools, Rollins said not as many Saratoga teens are using Safe Rides. "They haven't been hit as hard by Eric Quesada's death," she said.

But Williams said Safe Rides exists for peace of mind, and not just use. "It's such a great program. It really lets me go to sleep easier, knowing people have the option of getting a safe ride home," Williams said.

Kathy Winkelman is co-chairwoman of Community Against Substance Abuse, which supports Safe Rides financially and helps with the logistics.

"For 20 years, CASA has been an open door to try to connect the community with the needs of the teenagers," Winkelman said. "What Safe Rides promotes, which we are very much in favor of, is just that. And the fact is, it's run by the teens for the teens."