Trick-or-treat with care: Halloween safety tips to remember

With all the excitement and fun surrounding the upcoming spooky holiday, it is important to remember things can and will go bump in the night. Trick-or-treat night is from 6-8 p.m. Oct. 31, and with it brings inevitable excitement surrounding dressing up, haunted house visits and ghost stories around a fire. However, the Recorder has put together a list of things parents should keep in mind before the sun sets on Halloween. Drivers and pedestrians Pedestrian safety is one of the most important things to consider on Halloween, according to Aleatha Henderson, retired chief and director of public education for the Indianapolis Fire Department (IFD). Since trick-or-treating typically begins after dark, kids and adults in costumes might not be immediately visible to motorists. Drivers should enter and exit driveways, alleyways and parking lots slowly and carefully and pay attention to people walking on crosswalks, driveways, parking lots and sidewalks. Pedestrians should always use traffic signals and crosswalks, look left, right, then left again and make eye contact with drivers before crossing streets. Jack-o’-lantern carving While an annual tradition for many, it is important to keep an eye on children while carving jack-o’-lanterns and never leave sharp objects unattended where children...