EVANSTON – In an unprecedented move on Monday, the president of SafeRide announced that the organization was considering a name change after one of its vehicles T-boned a minivan, killing two of its own passengers and the driver of the other car.

“Safety obviously isn’t part of our image anymore,” said Michael Grossman, the president of the organization.

While numerous apologies and public statements have been made since the accident, this is the first that denotes any change in policy.
“We want to show the public that we acknowledge what happened and that we’re taking steps towards a solution. The last thing we want is for someone to mistake us for a company that can actually offer safe travel,” Grossman said later in the conference.

SafeRide will be moving forward with a series of publicity efforts emphasizing its new, yet-to-be decided name and slogan, “We’ll get you there intact…probably.” The campaign includes posters depicting a man sheepishly shrugging his shoulders with a smile, commercials showing scenes of unfocused drivers and passengers laughing, and “viral-type” advertising like large, distracting road paintings.

Included in this effort is a contest to rename the organization, where the public can help SafeRide choose between three new names for SafeRide cars: AdrenalinePumper, DeathTaunter, and WhoNeedsSeatbeltsMobile. The names are currently being tested in focus groups.