Less than a week away and the streets will be full of happy, excited children running house to house in search of candy. As much as parents try to teach them safety, often the excitement takes over. So it is important for drivers to keep an extra eye out. Watch for trick or treaters crossing the roads when out on Halloween night. If you sending your children out alone be sure they know road safety. The safety tips from Ford Canada below will be sure to help you out as well. Have fun and be safe!
General driving safety tips that really have extra importance on Halloween night. A few tips would be…
- Slow down. Children move in unpredictable patterns and will be running up and down sidewalks and zigzagging across streets. Drivers should lower their speed, especially in residential areas, as children may appear unexpectedly in the route of travel.
- Lights on. Having full headlights on at all times not only helps drivers to easily spot children, but also lets trick-or-treaters know when a vehicle is approaching.
- Eyes wide open. Children’s costumes may be dark in colour or without reflective patches, limiting their visibility. Children’s masks may also cause their view to be limited or obstructed. Drivers should keep their eyes peeled and be extra mindful behind the wheel.
- Stay alert. All it takes is one second for a child to dart across the street and into a driver’s path of travel. As always, stay alert with your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.
Advanced safety considerations and technologies from Ford like:
- Child seats. Make sure that child safety seats are properly installed and that kids are safely strapped in! You likely saw the story in this week’s headlines about the Ontario woman caught traveling 212km an hour with two small kids not in their child seats! Ford has a special LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system which is standard in all Ford models that ensures drivers properly and easily install their child seats.
- Back seat – belt etiquette. With lots of stop and go on Halloween during trick or treating trips it might be tempting to not buckle up. But it’s essential…
- Inflatable seat belts. Ford now has second-row inflatable safety belts in several of their vehicles like the 2013 Flex. This is a remarkable award-winning innovation for Ford and works well on smaller body sizes.
- MyKey technology. This advanced technology allows drivers to preset things like maximum speed, maximum audio volume, and alert to fuel consumption and seat belt usage. This allows for the driver to cut down on driver distractions that might come along with such a crazy night. This is also a great technology for those parents giving their teens the family vehicle for the evening!
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