Drink-drive message goes down the toilet

1.20pm

Urinals in pubs and hotels across New Zealand are the latest battleground in the war on drink-driving.

Signs in the urinals are heat-activated and will display a message when hit by warm liquid.

They will say either: "If you drink then don't drive you're a bloody legend" (with a picture of a taxi) or: "If you drink then drive you're a bloody idiot" (with a picture of a wrecked car).

The message disappears when the urinal cools down, ready to be re-activated by the next visitor.

The campaign is being run by the Land Transport Safety Authority with the slogan: "Which car will you piss off in tonight?".

Liz Taylor-Read at the LTSA said: "This will definitely be a 'moment of truth' experience for any bloke who goes to the toilet in one of the participating pubs.

"These advertisements are designed to get men thinking of the consequences of drinking and driving before they make the wrong decision."

She said crash statistics from the past 18 months show 81 per cent of drinking drivers in crashes were male.

Last year, 131 people were killed in drink-driving crashes – compared to 108 in 2002 and 117 in 2001.

Drinking drivers kill and injure a substantial number of other people each year. Last year they injured or killed 580 of their own passengers, 310 occupants of other vehicles and 45 pedestrians and cyclists.

Members of the Hotel Association of New Zealand have volunteered to take part in the scheme.

By the end of September almost 260 pubs and hotels will have the urinal billboards in place.