Halloween has one of the highest rates of pedestrian-vehicle collisions involving children, of any night of the year – not a big surprise due to the numbers of children on the roads on Halloween. It is also a night of increased drunk driving by teens and adults participating in Halloween festivities.
You can protect your children by making sure that they have flashlights or reflective strips or stickers on their costumes, and that they don’t have masks that obstruct their vision. But, one of the best ways to protect children on Halloween is to teach them pedestrian safety all year long, so that on Halloween night they know to listen for vehicles on the roads around them, stay on the sidewalks or the sides of the road, and to watch for and move out of the way of oncoming traffic.
While drivers have the ultimate responsibility to pay attention, follow the law, and control their vehicles, it is best not to rely upon other people to do the right thing. Keep your children safer this year by teaching them to be good pedestrians all year long.
