Halloween can be a great holiday, full of magic, sweets and family bonding. However, it can also be dangerous for children–mainly because of poor drivers. 

Even drivers who have good intentions can end up making tragic mistakes. Here is a look at a few:

Not buckling up

If you drive your children around while they trick or treat, it can be a pain to have to constantly buckle them into their car seats. What is the use, really? You are driving them only, say, a few houses or blocks over, and your speed will not exceed 25 mph. You want your kids to have a fun night and be able to jump in and out of the car. However, safety dictates that you buckle in your children. You yourself may be driving slowly and carefully (albeit with your children unbuckled), but will other drivers be as slow and careful? Some will not. Even a car rear-ending you with both vehicles traveling at a low speed can mean serious injuries for your children (for you, too). So, you should be careful to buckle up as well.

Using time to judge when to pay more attention

If you are used to children trick or treating between, say, five o’clock and eight o’clock, you may pay extra attention while driving between these hours. But if you are out on the road at four o’clock or at nine o’clock, you might give the roads the same amount of attention as you would on an ordinary night. However, kids trick or treat when you might not be expecting them to. They may even go out on the nights before Halloween some years, so it is good to be extra careful at all hours on Halloween and on the nights before.

Driving distracted

When you drive slowly to the next stop for your children to trick or treat, it can be tempting to reach for the phone. However, it is likely dark out and could be rainy. Even if conditions are ideal, all it takes is one second (less, really) for you to glance at a text and for a child to dart out in front of your car.