Important Safety Tips To Follow This Halloween

Now that the year's spookiest day of the year is upon us, I thought it would only be fitting to share some safety tips for families to follow. If you plan on taking your children trick-or-treating, you'll want to follow some simple steps to ensure a safe and enjoyable Halloween experience for everyone involved. It's not something most people want to think about, but accidents do occur on Halloween. To learn more about creating a safe Halloween experience for your children, keep reading.

Statistically speaking, Halloween receives the third highest number of injuries out of the year, only behind New Year's Eve and July 4th. Understanding the most common causes of injuries on this spooky day will allow you to make better choices to ensure your child's safety.

Here's a short list of some of the most common types of injuries on Halloween:

• Automobile accidents
• Cuts from carving pumpkins (avoid sharp knives and use plastic carvers instead)
• Burns from lit pumpkins
• Falling while trick-or-treating around the neighborhood
• Cuts or bruises from poorly designed Halloween costumes
• Halloween costume catching fire

Make Yourself Visible To Other Drivers

The single most common type of injury on Halloween is automobile accidents. When you and your children are trick-or-treating down the street, you need to be aware of other drivers. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for drivers to hit and injure trick-or-treaters in the dark of night. You can reduce this chance of this happening by making yourself more visible to other motorists.

I'm sure this is common sense to most people, but you should always bring a flashlight trick-or-treating. Keeping your flashlight on at all times will allow motorists to see you more easily. In addition, it will also help guide you and your child through the neighborhood more easily. Another helpful tip for increasing your visibility to motorists is to attach a glow stick to your body. Children love glow sticks, so chances are they'll gladly wear one around their belt loop. And since they don't require batteries, you don't have to worry about your glow stick going out.

Stay Off The Road

When you're trick-or-treating in a neighborhood, remember to stay off the road at all times. Ideally, you and your child should remain on the sidewalk. If there's not a sidewalk available, though, you should walk on the grass. Staying off the road is just one more step parents can take to create a safe and enjoyable Halloween experience for their children.