On Halloween, walk safely and carry a big pumpkin

“We are quickly approaching two dangerous dates for those walking,” one of my favorite readers emailed the other day. “Halloween evening and 6 p.m. on the Monday following daylight savings ending.”

Then she made a very scary statement. “If a car is going 20 mph and hits a pedestrian, there’s a 95 percent survival rate. At 40 mph, the death rate is 85 percent.”

The Centers for Disease Control’s website states that children are four times more likely to be struck by a motor vehicle on Halloween than any other day of the year so I thought it might be a good time to remind everyone about watching out for our little goblins and vampires.

There are a multitude of websites with Halloween safety tips. One piece of advice I particularly endorse is to encourage your child to avoid or limit their cellphone usage while trick-or-treating. There are enough distractions with traffic, treats and other tricksters without adding texting, tweeting and talking.

If you want to keep track of where your child is, go along.

Parents should never let children under twelve go out unsupervised, according the AAA’s Halloween Safety page. If you can’t go with, send an older more responsible individual. And, there’s always better safety in numbers. Motorists will be more apt to see a gaggle of ghouls and princesses than just one or two.

Children should be told to stay on the sidewalk and avoid walking down the middle of the street. Where there is no sidewalk they should walk as far to the left side of the road as possible, facing traffic.

They should be reminded to look both ways. Remember Stop, Look, and Listen? Yeah, tell the kids about it.

Their costumes should be decorated with reflective tape and their masks should not obstruct their vision. Long billowing costumes are a tripping hazard and shouldn’t be worn.

Also remember that it’s going to be really cold, so that reflective tape should also be on their jackets and the treat bag or bucket.

Make sure they carry a flashlight with good batteries and know better than to shine it into the eyes of the oncoming drivers. If they put it in their treat bucket to free up their hands, they should leave it lit to help motorists see them.

You should know where your kids are going and remind them not to stop at houses that are dark and to never, never go into the house or garage of a stranger. If you tell them that they can’t eat any treats until they get home, they’ll probably get there before their curfew.

If you are out driving on Halloween, look out for the little ones.

Know that despite all my good advice, some of them will be hard to spot, particularly the bigger little ones. Remember that they won’t be good at paying attention to traffic and may cross between cars or mid-block.

Slowdown in residential neighborhoods, yes my friends, that means driving five miles under the posted speed limit, particularly in town. That will give you a little extra reflex time.

Be very careful on alleys and driveways. Turn on your headlights well before dark so they can see you better.

Drive sober. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “from 2007 to 2011, 52 percent of all national vehicle related fatalities occurring on Halloween night involved a drunk driver.”

If you plan to drink, get a designated driver, period, end of statement.

And, looking forward, days will start getting much, much shorter now and many of us will want to continue our resolution to walk or run at least 30 minutes each day. Some of you will want to do that before or after work, so please take note to be especially careful by wearing reflective clothing, watching for traffic and not blasting the volume of your tunes or tapes.

Kathy Hubbard is a trustee on Bonner General Hospital Foundation Board. She can be reached at 264-4029 or kathyleehubbard@yahoo.com.