Keeping your trick-or-treaters safe on Halloween

Halloween is notorious for trick-or-treaters of all ages—dressed to the nines and collecting candy. It’s also notorious for accidents; some fatal.

Why? Kids excited to go from house to house and dart in front of cars or drivers don’t see them walking in the street.

“It only takes a brief moment got there to be a tragedy,” said Lt. Greg Bueno with Florida Highway Patrol. “What we have to remember is the importance of safety.”

Al Maker decorates his home every year for the kids. He says his neighborhood is the perfect place to trick-or-treat.

“Doesn’t matter what night it’s on or anything like that, people come from all over because it’s a neighborhood that safe to walk in,” he said.

“We don’t get a lot of traffic coming through over here. It’s a one-mile circle, so it’s perfect for the time they want to spend trick-or-treating.”

FHP has identified some trouble spots where they hope parents will keep an even closer hold onto their kids.

Those roads include Pine Island Road, US-41 and streets in Immokalee. They say busy roads where kids will cross to get from one place to another are particularly dangerous, like Three Oaks Parkway.

Carolann VanderMeer lives in the neighborhood known for Halloween

“The trick-or-treating in our neighborhood is insane,” said VanderMeer.

She says there’s no use hiding it, so she and her neighbors embarrass the crowds of kids!

But with so many ghouls and goblins comes responsibility—to be aware. Which is why she has a reflector ready to go for her son’s costume

“We have one on top of his costume right now waiting for him to put it on,” said Vandemeer. “We usually hand out the glow sticks for the kids so all the kids that are in our group have the glow sticks.”

Bueno says he knows that kids are excited, but drivers need to stay alert and kids should be supervised.

“Tonight, we know that there’s going to be an increase in pedestrians and those pedestrians are little princesses and the witches and the football players and we want to make sure they have an amazing night and get lots of candy and that they do so safely,” he said.

VanderMeer says her son is older now, so he’s allowed to go around the block with his friends. But that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all.

“They know the rules they know not to go outside the circle and they know to come back and check in after they do their rounds,” she said. “Nothing’s going to happen when we’re all out and we all know each other and are watching out.”