Halloween is supposed to be a little scary. But if you are worrying about your kids receiving poisoned candy from strangers — something never actually documented in the USA — you probably are worrying about the wrong thing.
You also might be worrying about the wrong demographic: Although young children face Halloween health and safety hazards, teens and adults do, too. So do pets.
Here are a few real things to worry about as the holiday approaches.
Cars, especially drunken drivers
This is the biggie. Halloween is the deadliest day of the year for young pedestrians, with twice as many deaths as on a typical day, according to auto insurer State Farm. Most at risk: kids ages 12 to 18 — the ones often roaming the streets without parents and with distractions like friends and cellphones.
"It's good to have a cellphone with you but not to be texting when you are crossing the street," says Kate Carr, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide, a non-profit organization. On Halloween, as on other nights, "distracted walking" is a big hazard for teens, she says.
Another hazard for everyone on the streets: drunken drivers. As Halloween has become a more adult holiday, it also has become a major drinking occasion, says the National Highway Safety Administration. The share of fatal crashes involving drunken drivers rises from the usual 30% to nearly 50% on Halloween, the agency says. About 20% of pedestrian deaths on Halloween involve a drunken driver.
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