As parents prepare for Halloween trick or treating, safety is a number one priority.
Parents, including Heather Cottrill, have instituted some best practices while the kids are getting candy.
“They have the neon bracelets and everything. We always hold their hand and make sure they are on the inside of the road,” Cottrill said.
On Halloween night in 2019, 89 people were fatally injured, according to AAA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and children are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car and killed on Halloween than any other day of the year.
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There are some safety tips that parents should keep in mind before children go out trick or treating.
”Make sure that their costumes don’t inhibit either their sight or their ability to move. We also want to reinforce that they need to cross at the corners or in marked crosswalks so that they’re not stepping out in between parked vehicles,” Tracy Noble, spokesperson for AAA Greater Hartford, said.
Noble said drivers need to eliminate all distractions, put the phones down and pay attention to trick or treaters.
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She also warned of the dangers of drunken driving.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 126 people were killed in drunken-driving crashes on Halloween night between 2015 and 2019.
Noble recommends that people hosting a Halloween party make sure to decide who will be the designated driver.
“Safety needs to be first and foremost and it might not be the most fun message but it certainly is a message that needs to be reminded,” Noble said. Trick or treating this year will be happening amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
