Safety Tips for a Happy Halloween
For children and adults alike, Halloween is a fun time for planning a great costume, dressing up and trick-or-treating. Here are safety tips for having a spooktacular and safe night with your superhero, witch, vampire or fairy.
Costume Safety Tips
- Choose a character whose costume and accessories will be safe when walking and won’t cause a safety hazard.
- Costumes should fit properly to prevent tripping and falling.
- Bought costumes should also be fire-resistant.
- For trick-or-treating in darker neighborhoods, tape candy bags or containers with reflective tape; consider taping parts of the costume, shoes or accessories. Glow sticks are also a fun way to keep your trick-or-treater more visible.
- Masks can obscure vision; think about using face paint or a non-toxic Halloween make-up kits.
Safety Tips for Trick-or-Treaters
Parents should keep careful watch of their trick-or-treaters and create some guidelines such as:
- Bring flashlights for safety on darker roads (glow sticks are fun too, see above).
- Stay together – don’t walk alone or get too far ahead of the family; always have a buddy.
- Follow the rules of the road, including walking only on sidewalks or as close to the right of the road as possible.
- Cross streets at lights and crosswalks where possible. Look both ways before crossing.
- Remind kids not to cross between cars, trees or shrubs.
- Agree on a pre-planned route for older kids who go out together. The route should be familiar and in well-lit areas.
- Agree on a time when older groups should be back home.
- Treats should be eaten only when kids get back home so you can inspect them in good light. This also avoids an accidental food allergy incidents.
- Remind trick-or-treaters never to enter a stranger’s home.
Safety Tips for Parents While Trick-or-Treating
- Socializing with other parents is fun, but always keep an eye on your trick-or-treater.
- Stay off your phone as much as possible to stay focused on where you are going and where your child is. Children often have similar costumes and could get lost in a crowd.
- Carry a bottle of water or two.
- In colder climates, make sure you take jackets for everyone.
- Warn children to stay with your group and stay on the route everyone is on.
Safety Tips for Drivers
- According to the National Safety Council, on Halloween, children are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car than on any other day of the year. Some contributing factors are more people than usual walking on the road and in neighborhoods, dark costumes make trick-or-treaters harder to see, and often neighborhoods aren’t well-lit.
- If you’re driving, be extra alert for trick-or-treaters and other pedestrians.
- Drive a little slower than usual during trick-or-treating hours and through neighborhood streets.
- If your roads or streets aren’t well-lit, be cautious during trick-or-treating hours.
- Children are extra excited and may dart into the street quickly. They may be walking unexpectedly on medians and curbs. When driving scan streets especially along streets with parked cars.
- Making turns, and enter/exit driveways slowly.
- Do not text and drive, or drive while intoxicated.
- If you suspect an impaired driver, contact law enforcement.
- If you are a new driver, if possible have an experienced driver drive you to your destination or use a ride share service.
Good maintenance of your security gate. Making sure the gate is properly functioning at all times is critical, whether you use a security service to monitor access or not. A system using key fob or key card systems can also log access and provide information should an incident occur.
Keep these safety tips in mind to make your Halloween as fun as possible. Remind your children that it by following your guidelines will help make this year’s Halloween frightful, fun and safe for everyone.
Keeping your home secure – if you are staying at home to greeting the parade of ghosts, pirates and princesses, learn some strategies to keep your home secure during this Halloween.
Rapid International Offers Community Solutions
Safety, Community, Together. Rapid International provides security services, including staffed areas and patrol services, prioritizing neighborhood-based security in collaboration with your community. Rapid’s management has extensive experience in the security industry and in each city, we build partnerships with local law enforcement and emergency service agencies. Together with community members, we work to make people and communities safe and secure.
Please get in touch to learn about our community-level security program – we believe the strength of collaboration and partnership make neighborhoods safer for everyone. In Georgia, call: (706) 844-2586, in California call: (213) 364-1394 or email us at info@therapidway.com.
What is a ghoul’s favorite game?
Hide and shriek!
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Photograph courtesy: Thầy Giáo Ba