For four hours Thursday, from 10 am until 2 pm, a steady stream of cars driven by UGA students, staff and faculty passed through the Tate Student Center parking lot.
Those attending received free vehicle inspections as Transportation and Parking Services held its annual Operation Safe Drive event.
Blaine Van Note is the operations and compliance manager. He says they were joined by mechanics from the Facilities Management Division to help top off fluids, check lights, and more, all free of charge.
“It’s just a way for us to kind of give back to the university community, we have mechanics from Campus Transit and from FMD automotive shop;” according to Van Note. “They’re out here, we just do a visual inspection of the vehicles. They check tire pressure, they look at their belts and wiper blades and they check the lights. Just anything that might prevent someone from getting home safely for the holidays.”
Other departments also participated, including the office of Sustainability and Bike Athens who provided free bicycle safety inspections and tune-ups. Drivers and cyclists received gift bags, information and hot chocolate.
Noelle Broadnaxe is with the Office of Emergency Preparedness.
“We are providing some additional safety information that students, faculty and staff might be interested in, including our LiveSafe safety app,” Broadnaxe said.
The annual event is held rain or shine and organizers say they want to make sure the UGA community has safe travel during the holidays.