Halloween and the Clock Change Fall on the Same Weekend: A Safety Guide for NEPA Families
This year, two of the most dangerous nights of the year for people on foot land back to back.
Halloween falls on Saturday, October 31. Daylight saving time ends the next morning, Sunday, November 1, when clocks go back an hour. By Monday, the evening commute that was happening at dusk will be happening in the dark, on the same streets where kids were trick-or-treating two nights earlier.
Neither of these is new. But the combination is worth a few minutes of attention from anyone who drives, walks or has kids in Luzerne or Lackawanna County.
Halloween is the deadliest night of the year for young pedestrians
The most thorough look at this question comes from a study published in JAMA Pediatrics, which examined 42 years of national fatal crash data. Researchers found that the risk of a pedestrian being killed was 43 percent higher on Halloween evening than on comparable nights. For children ages 4 to 8, the risk was about ten times higher. The most dangerous hour was around 6 p.m.
The reasons are not hard to see. Kids are excited, in dark costumes and masks that limit their vision. They cross mid-block, dart between parked cars and go house to house on both sides of the street. Drivers, meanwhile, are often heading home from work or to parties, and some have been drinking.
Then the clocks change
Most pedestrian deaths already happen after dark. The Governors Highway Safety Association's latest national data found that more than three-quarters of pedestrian fatalities with known lighting conditions happened in darkness.
When the clocks fall back, a big share of everyday walking suddenly moves into those conditions: people walking home from the bus, from a shift change, from school activities, or just around the neighborhood after dinner. Drivers who have made the same trip all summer in daylight have to adjust to glare, low contrast and people they simply don't see until late. It takes a while for everyone's habits to catch up.
If you're driving this weekend
Slow down in neighborhoods between about 5 and 9 p.m. on Halloween. Treat every parked car as something a child might step out from behind.
Enter and back out of driveways slowly. Small kids in costumes are hard to see from a driver's seat.
Put the phone away completely. A two-second glance at a text is the difference between stopping and not stopping. See Hit by a Distracted or Texting Driver.
If you're going to a party, plan a ride home before you go.
The week after the time change, leave a few minutes early, clean your windshield and headlights, and expect people walking and biking in places you don't usually see them. Pennsylvania requires drivers to give cyclists at least four feet. See The Four-Foot Law and Your Rights.
If your kids are trick-or-treating
Add reflective tape to costumes and bags, and give every child a flashlight or glow stick.
Choose face paint over masks when you can, so kids can see cars coming.
Stick to one side of the street at a time, and cross at corners, not between parked cars.
Children under about 10 are generally not ready to judge traffic on their own, so go with them.
Check your municipality's trick-or-treat hours, which vary from town to town across the region.
If something does happen
Call 911 first, and get medical care for anyone who was hit, even if the injuries look minor. Children often can't explain what hurts, and some injuries don't show up for hours. If the driver leaves, try to note the vehicle, plate and direction of travel, and look for doorbell or security cameras nearby. Footage is often recorded over within days.
Pennsylvania has some rules that matter for families in particular. Your own auto insurance usually pays medical bills first, even when you were walking. Claims for children follow different deadlines than claims for adults, and any settlement for a child has to be approved by a judge. We cover those details in our Injury Help Center:
Most of all, enjoy the weekend. A few extra seconds of patience behind the wheel is the whole job.
If someone in your family is hurt by a careless driver, the attorneys at Joyce, Carmody & Moran are right here in Pittston and can talk it through with you. The first conversation is free and there is no obligation. Request a free consultation.
