{"id":2605,"date":"2010-12-17T19:58:23","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T18:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatsonni.com\/blog\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2010-12-17T19:58:23","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T18:58:23","slug":"driving-home-for-christmas-big-brother-star-brian-dowling-launches-coca-cola%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98ultimate%e2%80%99-safe-driving-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2010\/12\/driving-home-for-christmas-big-brother-star-brian-dowling-launches-coca-cola%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98ultimate%e2%80%99-safe-driving-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"DRIVING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS – BIG BROTHER STAR BRIAN DOWLING LAUNCHES COCA-COLA\u2019S \u2018ULTIMATE\u2019 SAFE DRIVING CAMPAIGN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ultimate Big Brother winner Brian Dowling visited Belfast\u2019s Ten Square Hotel recently to officially launch \u2018Designated Driver\u2019 Coca-Cola\u2019s award winning Christmas safe driving campaign.<\/p>\n

The aim of the campaign, which was developed with the support of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Dept of the Environment, is to reduce instances of drink driving during the festive season.\u00a0 Consumers who volunteer to be the designated driver on a night out will be rewarded with up to three free soft drinks from the Coca-Cola product portfolio in participating pubs, clubs and restaurants across Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the launch, TV favourite Brian expressed his support for the Designated Driver campaign.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m delighted to be here in Belfast today to help Coca-Cola launch Designated Driver.\u00a0 We all love a good night out during the festive season and this campaign encourages people to make responsible decisions and ensure they get home safely.\u00a0 Drink driving is a major cause of road collisions at this time of year but with soft drinks on the house this Christmas, there are more reasons than ever to be the designated driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since its launch in 2007, the campaign has been evolving and this year Designated Driver will feature an exciting province wide road show.\u00a0 A team of Designated Driver \u2018Chauffeurettes\u2019 will take to the road to spread the campaign\u2019s safe driving message and reward drivers with some fantastic prizes.\u00a0 The campaign\u2019s website www.designated-driver.co.uk<\/a> provides a full list of participating licensed outlets and an exciting new free to download iPhone app, which enables users to find their nearest participating Designated Driver pub when they\u2019re out and about.<\/p>\n

This year, Designated Driver has also shifted its online presence up a gear with the launch of a dedicated Facebook page, www.facebook.com\/cocacoladesignateddriver<\/a> which will be a fun focal point for all information relating to the campaign and will feature some great new competitions.<\/p>\n

Erica Roseingrave, Public Affairs & Communications Manager for Coca-Cola HBC Northern Ireland is appreciative of the overwhelming support for Designated Driver. \u00a0\u201cAs a leading soft drinks supplier in Northern Ireland, we are delighted to be in a position to play a role in reducing the problem of drink driving during the festive season.\u00a0 Working in partnership with our customers all over Northern Ireland, we aim to offer consumers a tangible reward for choosing to be the designated driver on a night out.\u00a0 We are grateful to DOE, PSNI and all the publicans across the province who support the Designated Driver campaign – without them this initiative would not be possible.\u00a0 Finally, we would like to thank everyone who makes the responsible decision this Christmas by choosing to be the designated driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driving home the serious message behind the campaign, Environment Minister, Edwin Poots explains, \u201cI fully support any initiative that improves road safety.\u00a0 As we plan for Christmas, we have a duty to our own families and friends to ensure we are there to celebrate with them. We also have to ensure other people are able to celebrate with their relatives and friends too.\u00a0 The safest way to do that is to book a taxi or have a designated driver who will not drink alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, 21 people were killed and 115 were seriously injured in collisions attributed to alcohol or drugs.\u00a0 All of these families\u2019 lives changed forever the moment the drivers responsible took a drink and decided to drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message to all drivers is clear: just one drink will impair your driving.\u00a0 It\u2019s your fault if someone dies or is seriously injured because you decided to drink and drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head of Road Policing, Superintendent Muir Clark adds, \u201cIt is critically important for passengers to ensure their designated driver hasn\u2019t been drinking and that people resist the temptation to overload vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I wish we could show more people the horrific results of someone taking the stupid, selfish decision of getting behind the wheel after drinking. While the number of people killed on roads in Northern Ireland to date this year is half that of this time last year (51 compared to 104), all it takes is one wrong decision, one moment\u2019s inattention or one drink to instantly changes lives forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everyone slowed down, did not drive after drinking or taking drugs, wore a seatbelt and drove with greater care and attention then together we can reduce this preventable carnage on our roads.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ultimate Big Brother winner Brian Dowling visited Belfast\u2019s Ten Square Hotel recently to officially launch \u2018Designated Driver\u2019 Coca-Cola\u2019s award winning Christmas safe driving campaign. The aim of the campaign, which was developed with the support of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Dept of the Environment, is to reduce instances of drink driving … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1332,1331,1335,81,1334,1333],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/2607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}