Halloween safety tips

As parents take their princesses, ghouls and goblins trick-or-treating, they need to keep in mind the safety of themselves, their children and those around them.

“Parents should teach their children a few basic rules of thumb for Halloween safety,” said Cherrie Pullium, DNP, APRN, ACNS-BC, clinical assistant professor for the Texas A&M College of Nursing. “One of those is to make sure that the homes that they actually trick-or-treat at has adequate lighting. If the porch light isn’t on, there’s a good possibility they don’t want them trick-or-treating there.”
In addition to stranger danger, another significant safety concern for children involves being hit by cars.

“About 70 percent of these pedestrian versus auto accidents actually occur outside of crosswalks, so it’s very important to teach your child: cross at the crosswalks, make sure that you look both ways before you cross,” Pullium said. “If you’re with other trick-or-treaters, hold hands because it makes you more visible to cars.”

If parents can follow and teach these basic safety tips to their children, then they are taking the first step to having a safe and happy Halloween!

From Vital Record, this is Tim Schnettler.