Halloween is scary. But for whom is the holiday the most dangerous?
Pumpkins? Waistlines? People who give dental floss instead of candy? The hilarious person who today will kid their (un-costumed) boss: “Take off that scary mask, it’s not Halloween yet!”?
Correct. None of the above. The unsurprising reality is that an everyday monster is most likely to wreak havoc on Halloween: Cars, according to Safe Kids USA. Specifically, cars hitting children.
On the other hand, there is not a single documented case of poisoned candy or razor-bladed candy from strangers killing any child on Halloween. Yet, every year families are encouraged to take their treats to be x-rayed as a precaution, because the specter of evil strangers makes for a scarier holiday than ghoulishly distracted drivers and trick-or-treaters.
“I think an urban legend is harder to kill than a vampire,” Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, told the St. Petersburg Times.
Halloween isn’t the big, bad menace it’s made out to be (as opposed to any other day). Safe Kids USA reports that more than 540 kids under age 14 are killed in pedestrian accidents each year. In an analysis of deaths from 2002 to 2006, the group found an average of 2.2 children are killed in accidents from 4 to 10 p.m. on Halloween, compared with one child every other evening at the same time.
It adds up that when more kids are out than any other night of the year, more will be hit by cars than on other days. Not that any pedestrian deaths are acceptable on any day, they just shouldn’t be used as an argument against Halloween traditions, but for more caution, especially on a party Saturday night.
Many forces are at play: Darkness; vision-obscuring masks; hopped-up kids darting here and there when they spot their next stop; kids out without an adult, flashlights or reflective clothing; teens and adults driving as usual, fast and on the phone, or while intoxicated and/or wearing vision-obscuring masks; suburbs without sidewalks or crosswalks; streets without lights.
Children and parents need to practice defensive tricks — assume that autos won’t see them no matter how many flashlights or how much reflective gear they sport, etc.
Halloween belongs outdoors, going house to house, not indoors at the mall.
For those who feel no amount of caution is enough, we encourage them to seek out the safest place imaginable on Halloween: the most sincere pumpkin patch they can find.
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