'It can happen to any of us': MADD hosts Nick Coates memorial car show - Action News
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'It can happen to any of us': MADD hosts Nick Coates memorial car show

The parents of Nick Coates, a victim of drunk driving, hope their fourth annual memorial car show will urge people to not drink and drive.

The 27-year-old struck by truck while riding motorcycle on Kenmount Road

Car show in memory of Nick Coates

8 years ago
Duration 2:01
Car show in memory of Nick Coates

For the fourth year in a row, the Nick Coates Memorial Car Show saw hundreds of trucks, bikes and cars roll into the Confederation Building Parking lot in St. John's.

"It's about Nicholas and all victims of impaired driving," said his stepmother PatriciaHynes-Coates on Saturday.

27-year-old Nick Coateswasriding his motorcycle when he collided with a pickup truck inAugust of 2013.Coateslater died from his injuries.

The driver of the truck was sentenced with impaired driving causing death.

Terry Coates and Patricia Hynes-Coates stand beside the motorcycle Nick was riding when he was struck by an impaired driver. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)

Hynes-Coates is now the new national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Saturday's event was hosted by MADD'sAvalon chapter.

"It's about trying to get the message out to keep Nick's memory alive, and to make people realize how serious a crime this actually is and how easy and preventable it actually is."

Hynes-Coates and her husband, Terry Coates, displayed the vehicle their son wasriding when he was killed.

"This is the motorcycle that Nicholas and his father had painted and got ready to put on the road," said Hynes-Coates.

"And unfortunately, it was the vehicle he was riding when he was killed by an impaired driver [at] 11 o'clock on a Friday afternoon."

She saidthe bike is meant to be an impact statement, showing that "it can happen to any of us, at any given time."

Hynes-Coateshopes it willurge others not to drink and drive.

With files from Jeremy Eaton