Coroner gets help on New Year’s rides for revelers

After three years of going it alone, Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones had help early Sunday in giving New Year’s revelers a ride home.

Three vans gave 59 people a ride home, Jones said. That’s more than double the number he drove home last year. This is the fourth year Jones has given the rides and until this year he had done it by himself.

Jones said he asked for some help this year because people were having to wait too long last year and he didn’t want anyone tempted to try to drive home.

His helpers were Robert Daniels, owner of Daniels Removal and Transport Service in Macon, and Capt. Dexter Lawson of the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department.

“I had some good, professional help,” Jones said.

They stayed busy enough that he said he may seek more help for next year.

For the first time since he started providing the free service, Jones said no one threw up on the way home. Some people contacted him ahead of time to let him know they would need a ride while others called on the spur of the moment after realizing they were too drunk to drive home.

Jones said they also gave rides to Watch Night church services held on New Year’s Eve.

He said most of the calls for rides came from bars in the downtown area. He said the request for rides has grown as word of the service has gotten around, which he doesn’t mind.

“I’d rather transport you sitting up than transport you lying down,” Jones said.

This story was originally published January 1, 2017 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Coroner gets help on New Year’s rides for revelers."