Halloween is the one night a year most Central Texas children become pedestrians. Add a little darkness and the situation is set for unintentional injury of a child. Pedestrian injury remains the second leading cause of unintentional injury related death for those between the ages of 5 and 14.

It's a good idea to review some precautions for parents and for drivers to keep this year's holiday as safe as possible. It's natural for kids to forget safety rules when the quest for more and more candy is at hand. Adults have to be overly cautious with their children this night in order to avoid injury. According to the Safe Kids USA, children are at increased risk for injury and death because traffic rules and risks often exceed their thinking, developmental, behavioral, physical and sensory abilities. In addition, caregivers often overestimate their child's knowledge. Unfortunately, injuries sustained by child pedestrians are often severe.

Put Your Child in the Safest Environment

While it's difficult to predict what may or may not pose a problem or cause an injury, you can put you and your child in the safest environment by adhering to the following tips.

• Take the kids trick or treating when there's still one hour of daylight remaining.
• Avoid high traffic areas.
• Look for a street where there are few parked vehicles.
• Look for areas with low speed limits.
• Look for areas that have crosswalk signals.
• Look for residential areas that have signs of kids, i.e. small bikes, toys.
• Stay on roads that are straight with long visibility.

How do I keep my child safe as a pedestrian?

To help prevent your child from getting hurt as a pedestrian, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign recommends the following tips:

• Walk with your child if they're under 10.
• Teach proper pedestrian behavior by modeling pedestrian behavior correctly, such as crossing at street corners, using traffic signals and crosswalks when available, and making eye contact with drivers before crossing.
• Teach children to look LEFT, RIGHT, and then LEFT again when crossing a street, and to continue looking around while crossing.
• Teach children that seeing the driver in a vehicle does not mean that the driver can see them.
• Never allow children to run into the street.
• Do not allow children to play in driveways, unfenced yards, streets, or parking lots.
• When walking along a street with no sidewalks, teach children to walk facing oncoming traffic, as far left as possible.
• At dawn and dusk, children should wear retro-reflective materials and carry flashlights.
• Teach children to cross the street at least 10 feet in front of a school bus.
• Children should wait for adults on the same side of the street where the school bus loads and unloads.
• Other preventive measures may include insisting on safer traffic measures, pedestrian walkways that separate pedestrians from the traffic, and lower speed limits.

Teenage Trick or Treating Safety

• Determine the boundaries or neighborhood where they'll be.
• Get names and phone numbers of other teenagers who go along with your teenager.
• Make sure they have a cell phone to use while out of the house.
• Make sure they have a flashlight or other light source.
• Inform them to stay out of alleys and fields and to stay in populated, well lit areas
• Inform them to only knock on doors where the house has a light on.
• Do not allow young children to go out with teenagers alone.
• Older children should bring home all edible treats for inspection before consuming.
• The group should always stay together.

More information on child safety issues can be found online at Safe Kids USA or in the Dell Children's health encyclopedia. You should also read additional GoodHealth.com articles for information on Halloween Costume Safety Tips, and Ghoulish But Healthy Halloween Party Food.

Safe Kids Austin, led by Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, is a member of Safe Kids USA, the nations first non-profit organization dedicated solely to the prevention of accidental childhood injury. Safe Kids Worldwide is made up of more than 450 state and local Safe Kids coalitions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.