Sobering morning message for drivers
New Arrive Alive campaign teaches young motorists sleeping doesn’t lower BAC
Just because you slept it off last night doesn’t mean you won’t get nabbed for driving impaired at dawn.
That’s the new Arrive Alive message packed in breakfast cereal boxes, along with a tiny toy car wreck, to make drivers aware they can still register an illegal alcohol level if they get behind the wheel the morning after.
“This is still one of those areas where people make the mistake of driving impaired without realizing it,” said Anne Leonard, director of Arrive Alive Drive Sober, a registered charity that has for 27 years focused on eliminating impaired driving, and its tragic consequences, by using creative messaging to raise public awareness.
“They probably feel like they’re hung over when they get up the next morning and sober enough to drive, but in fact their blood alcohol level is still over the criminal-code level,” Leonard added.
With help and funding from a variety of organizations and volunteers from all walks of life, including people working in media, marketing and public relations, education, government, the legal profession and the automotive, insurance and liquor industries, Arrive Alive gets its proactive messages out through workshops, conferences and special events throughout the year.
In this case, at Ontario colleges and universities.
Widely known for its memorable “Choose Your Ride” campaign that urges motorists planning on drinking to take a cab, transit or get a lift with a designated driver, rather than have to ride in a police car, ambulance or hearse, Arrive Alive Drive Sober’s latest program puts the “Just Because You Slept” message inside cereal boxes. With the help of Canadian organic breakfast cereal Arrowhead Mills, packed with a limited edition toy car wreck, Arrive Alive is reaching out to driving-aged students across Ontario this fall to spread the word about the morning after impaired driving risk many people may not be aware of.
“We’ve been doing a little bit of messaging on this since 2011,” said Leonard. “But the subject came in one of our workshops in Barrie where the police said they were finding impaired drivers in the morning who thought they were fine to drive after getting a night’s rest after drinking.”
Leonard said a mother contacted Arrive Alive after exactly that happened to her son, who left his car at home when going to a party with friends, took a ride home in a cab and got up the next morning feeling fit to drive. Instead, after a friend called asking to be picked up from the home where the party was held the night before, her son was charged with impaired driving when the police stopped him on the way to get his pal.
“We also heard from the operators of Ontario’s Ignition Interlock Program, that people were registering a fail and couldn’t start their car the next morning, even after they did the right thing and left the car at home on a Friday night,” Leonard said.
Motorists convicted of impaired driving or suspended for registering a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 to 0.08 three or more times during a five-year period must have an ignition interlock device installed after their licence is reinstated. If you don’t provide a sample, or if your BAC exceeds the limit, the device issues a warning, records the event and activates an alarm system triggering the lights to flash and making the horn blare until the ignition is turned off.
The toy cars packed in the cereal boxes resemble smashed up wrecks that illustrate the consequences of impaired driving and to bring home the reality that there’s no such thing as quickly sleeping off the effects of last night’s party when it takes up to 12 hours after the last drink to reach a zero blood alcohol level.
“This is still one of those areas where people make the mistake of driving impaired without realizing it.” ANNE LEONARD DIRECTOR OF ARRIVE ALIVE DRIVE SOBER