This Halloween, don’t worry about evil clowns or zombies. Think about traffic.
Trick-or-treat night is the most dangerous day of the year for kids, with an average of 5.5 deaths per year.
An estimated 41 million kids (aged 5 to 14) will head out for candy in America, and all those children mixed with all those cars can be dangerous.
Here’s what we know from a study of pedestrian fatalities: the most dangerous hour is twilight, about 6 to 7 p.m., because that’s when drivers have the hardest time spotting kids in the street.
A few practical safety tips for a safe Halloween:
- Be visible: costumes should include reflectors and bright colors, and should not obstruct vision or movement. Make sure little Joey can actually see out of that Darth Vader mask.
- Use flashlights and glow sticks
- Grown-ups should go with kids under 12, and kids over 12 should go in groups
- Cross streets at corners, using crosswalks and signals, resisting the temptation to bolt across the road to that cool house with the zombies
- Do the usual left-right-left check when crossing a road, and make eye contact with drivers to make sure they see you in that all-black ninja outfit
- Be especially careful with cars backing out of driveways
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