Tuesday is Halloween, which means a night of ghost, ghouls, candy and a whole lot of people saying “Trick or Treat!” But there’ s one other phrase Lac La Biche County’ s Protective Services would like parents and children to keep in mind: be seen, be
Tuesday is Halloween, which means a night of ghost, ghouls, candy and a whole lot of people saying “Trick or Treat!” But there’ s one other phrase Lac La Biche County’ s Protective Services would like parents and children to keep in mind: be seen, be safe.
Protective services is running their Be Seen, Be Safe campaign in conjunction with the municipality’ s traffic safety program, which they are running with the assistance of local businesses and organizations. It also falls inline with the multi-national Vision Zero program, which has been launched both federally and provincial.
“The program aims to have zero fatalities or serious collisions on highways or roads,” said the county’ s Enforcement Services Supervisor Sgt. Chris Clark. “There’ s no timeline on that as far as when it ends.”
The Be Seen, Be Safe program on the other hand, is geared more towards just Halloween night, when more children are on the roads after dark. And when it comes to costumes like Batman, ninjas or the Grim Reaper, many aren’ t exactly dressed in highly visible clothing.
“With kids trick or treating on Halloween at night, it increases the risk to their safety,” said Clark.
But protective services have a plan to help kids increase their visibility.
“We have 100 glow sticks all ready to be distributed to local students,” said Clark, adding that members of protective services will be visiting local elementary schools on Oct. 30 and 31. “We’ ll be distributing those at schools next week as well as doing safety demonstrations with students.”
But Clark points out that the Halloween safety tips are for more than just children, it’ s also important parents keep a few tips in mind.
“We also want to make sure parents have some general ideas of safety while out Trick or Treating with their kids,” he said.
Clark and protective services advise Trick or Treaters to:
- Cross roads at intersections and crosswalks
- Wear reflective bands or glow sticks to be seen
- Trick or Treat with an adult
- Dress warm under their costumes
- Not go to houses that have no lights on
- Stay in well-lit areas
- Trick or Treat in groups
- Never eat their candy until an adult checks it
- Not accept home made treats
- Watch for traffic and never cross a road between parked cars
- Not to walk down alleys
For added safety for residents and the community, the municipality will also have extra peace officers working on Halloween.
Clark also reminds people if they see anything suspicious going on or need assistance in some way they can either contact the RCMP at (780)-623-4380 or the peace officer complaint line at (780)-623-6767.
