Talking urinal cake fights drunk driving

A campaign in Michigan is hoping to flush away drunk drivers one men's bathroom at a time. The Office of Highway Safety Planning demonstrated its talking urinal cakes, which reminds people not to drink and drive this Fourth of July weekend. The automated message uses a women's voice to catch people's attention in the men's bathroom.



"Hey, listen up - that's right, I'm talking to you," it says. "We put a very serious message in a unique place, with a little humour," says Anne Readett with the Office of Highway Safety Planning. The recording is automatically set off by a motion sensor when someone walks up to the urinal.

"Have you had a few drinks, maybe a few too many?" the message says. "Do yourself and everyone else a favour and call a cab." Officials say women were not targeted because of the statistics on drunk driving. "It's a very male dominated issue. That's not to say women aren't arrested for drunk driving, but men are arrested at about three-to-one for women," says Readett.


YouTube link.

Officials hope the woman's voice will make the holiday safer and maybe even healthier. The message also comes with another reminder. "Oh, and by the way, don't forget to wash your hands," it says. The Office of Highway Safety Planning says it's possible the program could expand to women as well eventually, but for now funding is limited.

With longer news video.