Drivers taking a devil-may-care attitude on Halloween should consider this scary fact from the National Safety Council: Four times as many children aged 5 to 14 are killed while walking on Halloween night compared with other evenings in the year. Many of those deaths are from pedestrian/automobile accidents.
"Reduce speed and make sure windshields, headlights and mirrors are clean," says David W. Nelson, O.D., president of the AOA. "Drivers who have difficulty seeing at night should avoid driving on Halloween, and remember that pedestrians always think they are more visible to drivers at night than they really are."
To ensure a safe and accident-free Halloween, drivers should:
* Watch for children in the street and on medians.
* Exit driveways and alleyways carefully.
* Have children get out of cars on the curb side, not on the traffic side.
Parents can make driving easier for motorists by making sure their goblins and ghosts can see and be seen on Halloween night.
"There are two areas of concern," says Nelson. "Children need to be able to see clearly out of their costumes and be seen in their costumes."
When considering costumes, think about these safety aspects:
* Because masks can limit or block vision, consider hypoallergenic make-up and decorative hats instead. Parents should take care to keep make-up particles and applicators out of children's eyes. Hats should not obscure vision.
* Costumes can be both frightful and visible if parents decorate them with iron- or sew-on reflective tape or self-stick decals. Optometric studies show that people who wear reflective material are visible to drivers even at speeds of 70 to 80 mph. By comparison, white material is visible only up to 50 mph.
* Remind children to walk on sidewalks or yards, not in the street. Look both ways carefully at street crossings and try to cross at corners with streetlights if possible.
* Make sure shoes fit well and that costumes are short enough to prevent tripping.
* Have an adult accompany trick-or-treaters, or provide children with flashlights so they can navigate easily through neighborhoods after the sun sets.
* Make sure any holes in yards are filled, steps repaired and loose railings tightened. Porch or yard lights also should be turned on and yards cleared of any equipment or other objects that might trip a child.
People who drive on Halloween night should be extra vigilant when traveling neighborhood roads, the association says. This year, make it a treat for all by taking these extra safety precautions.
The American Optometric Association, www.aoanet.org, founded in 1898, represents more than 33,000 doctors of optometry, optometry students and paraoptometric assistants and technicians in more than 6,600 communities across the country and in foreign countries.
Courtesy of ARA Content, www.ARAcontent.com, e-mail: info@ARAcontent.com
