Millions of children and their parents hit the streets in search of candy on Halloween night, dressed in their most frighteningly fun attire. The atmosphere is festive and fun as they weave their way across streets and intersections to collect as many goodies as possible in as short a time as they can. However, it’s not all tricks and treats, notes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A variety of factors make Halloween one of the most dangerous days of the year for children, pedestrians and drivers in general.
Overall, there is double the chance of a child being involved in a fatal car crash on trick-or-treat night. Three things contribute to that heartbreaking and very sobering statistic:
- More people are drinking and driving. Kids aren’t the only ones who like to party on the spookiest night of the year. An uptick in people driving while intoxicated obviously leads to additional dangers for children out innocently collecting candy.
- More people are walking on the road. A surge in pedestrian traffic yields a heightened number of potential injuries. Pedestrians are involved in 28 percent of fatalities on Halloween, compared to just 14 percent on other dates.
- Children are hard to see. Children run about in the excitement of the night, sometimes failing to look or darting between cars with little regard for traffic. On top of that, the majority of Halloween costumes are black or other dark, hard-to-see colors that let trick-or-treaters blend into the night. All of this translates to an increase in the likelihood of a child being hurt.
Keeping Kids Safe
While it is impossible for you to safeguard your child from every potential peril in today’s dangerous world, there are a few things you can do to help keep your child safe while he or she goes trick-or-treating, including:
- Making it easy to see your child. Apply reflective material to your child’s costume and shoes, and let him or her carry a flashlight or strobe light to increase visibility.
- Discourse wearing a mask, since it makes it harder for your child to see and decreases your child’s field-of-vision, increasing the chance that an accident will occur.
- Accompany your child as he/she makes the candy rounds, or make sure that a grownup accompanies your child.
- Teach your child to only cross streets at marked crosswalks. If there are no crosswalks on a particular street, be sure your child knows how to use caution to cross.
- Limit the area your child trick-or-treats to a specific area with minimal traffic.
- Make sure your child’s costume fits snugly. Loose-fitting costumes may lead to slips and falls or trips and falls into passing traffic.
Compass Law Group works hard year round for car accident victims and their families. If you have been injured in a car accident, our Los Angeles car accident attorneys are prepared to go to bat for you. Schedule your no-obligation case review and evaluation today to get started on the road to compensation for your injuries.
