“This coaster used to be a car.”
It’s a slogan confronting patrons on coasters at Toronto’s The Emmet Ray whiskey bar in an effort to keep them from driving home drunk for St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
It’s all part of a campaign being coordinated by Arrive Alive, an organization that raises awareness of the risks of impaired driving.
The metal for the coasters came from cars that were involved in collisions, with the material provided by an auto body shop in Vancouver, Arrive Alive program director Michael Stewart told Global News.
The coasters have made people think about different ways to make it home safe, he added.
“People saw them and started having a conversation about how they got their license, how they behave behind the wheel,” Stewart said.
“People can hold it, experience it and have a conversation around it.”
This isn’t the first time that Arrive Alive and Rethink have partnered on an impaired driving awareness campaign.
In 2015, the two of them came up with “Tiny Toy Cars,” in which wrecked toy cars were placed in boxes of Arrowhead Mills cereal and handed out at a Frosh Beer Fest at Centennial College’s Ashtonbee campus.
The object of such campaigns is prevention, Stewart said.
“If you do decide to drink, please just plan ahead,” he said.
“If you want to have a good time, you totally can, just take the few seconds to plan a safe ride home.”