Halloween Safety

October brings fall traditions—football, harvest events, and Halloween. It is a great time for families to be creative with costumes and decorations. Halloween night also has real risks: on average, children are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car and killed on Halloween than on any other day of the year. Safe Kids Grand Forks shares practical steps parents and caregivers can take to help keep ghosts and goblins safe.

FedEx partnership

Safe Kids Grand Forks is proud to partner with FedEx on Halloween safety. On an international level, FedEx supports pedestrian and Halloween safety activities. Locally, our FedEx division provides volunteers for events and helps offset the cost of reflective items and brochures distributed across the region in October.

Keep costumes both creative and safe

• Decorate costumes and bags with reflective tape or stickers; choose light colors when possible.
• Prefer face paint and makeup over masks, which can block a child’s vision.
• Have kids carry a flashlight or glow sticks so they can see and be seen.
• Choose costumes that fit well to prevent trips and falls.
• Trick-or-treat with an adult.
• Children under 12 should not be out at night without adult supervision.
• If older kids go without you, remind them to stay in familiar, well-lit areas and go in groups.

Walk safely

• Cross at corners; use crosswalks and traffic signals when available.
• Look left, right, and left again when crossing; keep looking while you cross.
• Put devices away, keep heads up, and walk—don’t run—across the street.
• Teach children to make eye contact with drivers before stepping in front of a vehicle.
• Use sidewalks or paths. With no sidewalk, walk facing traffic, as far left as possible, on the shortest route with the fewest crossings.
• Watch for turning or backing vehicles. Never dart into the street or cross between parked cars.

Drive extra safely on Halloween

• Slow down and stay alert in residential neighborhoods; excited kids move unpredictably.
• Take extra time to look for children at intersections, on medians, and at curbs.
• Enter and exit driveways and alleys slowly and carefully.
• Remove distractions inside the vehicle.
• Expect heavy foot traffic; turn headlights on earlier to spot kids from farther away.
• Peak trick-or-treating is often 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.—be especially careful then.

Trunk-or-treat and alternative events

Many churches, community centers, and businesses host parking-lot or indoor events as a safer alternative to door-to-door trick-or-treating. Each fall, Safe Kids Grand Forks compiles regional events for our website and Facebook page. To add a public Halloween or harvest event, email safekids@altru.org.

Halloween events: Check our Facebook page for current listings.

More topics are on our safety information page.