Halloween Driving Safety Tips

So, it's finally Halloween. You carved and put out the pumpkins, you covered the trees in cobwebs, and you have the noise machine rigged to make ghost sounds in tune with the gauze ghosts you hung from the roof. You even have an enormous cauldron filled to the brim with a wide assortment of candy. You sit back and sigh wishing you could go trick-or-treating. After all, you've made your house into the exact kind you would've been excited to go to as a child. But then, you remember that you're going to a costume party this evening. You can still go all out with your attire, plus there will be alcohol in addition to the candy there. Why were you even upset? An adult Halloween is way better!

While adults typically don't go trick-or-treating, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate Halloween that don’t involve running from house to house looking for candy. And while Halloween can be a fun night for adults too, it’s important not to have too much fun and risk anyone’s safety. Since most adult Halloween parties involve alcohol, it's important that people don't engage in drinking and driving, which can lead to drunk driving car accidents. What's worse is that since so many children are on the streets on Halloween night, drunk driving accidents are very likely to cause serious injury or death to children.

Drunk driving is an unfortunately all too common occurrence on Halloween night, taking the lives of both those who were in the car, as well as innocent bystanders. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that between 2009 and 2013, 43% of all deaths that occurred on Halloween were due to a drunk driving related car collision. In 2013, 26% of all pedestrian fatalities were caused by a drunk driver. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there were 55 deaths on Halloween night in 2015, a significant rise from 17 deaths in 2011. Officials expect that number will steadily rise over the coming years.

The NHTSA also found that drunk driving car accidents are three times more likely to occur on Halloween than New Year’s Eve. David Bohl, the director of an alcohol abuse recovery center outside of Chicago, believes this is because the idea of adults celebrating Halloween has increased in popularity over the past few years. Speaking to The Chicago Tribune, Bohl said that more adults are choosing to celebrate the night with drinking. If people are celebrating on the weekend (regardless of what day the holiday actually falls on) this can lead to 6-8 hours of alcohol consumption.

In an effort to combat drunk driving, ride sharing app Uber has a Halloween guide for those who will be drinking. Ride sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft are a a great way to minimize drunk driving accidents. However, it’s important to remember that with ride sharing apps, surge pricing is usually in effect for nights like Halloween, so the fare may be higher than expected. Therefore, Halloween party-goers who plan to drink might want to consider public transportation, a cab service, or selecting a designated driver, as other safe alternatives to driving while intoxicated.

Even if drivers are not drunk, it is important to be especially cautious on Halloween night as the streets will be filled with excited trick-or-treaters looking for candy. According to the NHTSA, many pedestrian accidents are caused by common mistakes made by drivers that can be avoided. Safe Kids has the following tips for drivers.

Halloween Driving Safety Tips

  • Slow down and be especially alert in residential neighborhoods. Children are excited on Halloween and may move in unpredictable ways.

  • Take extra time to look for kids at intersections, on medians and on curbs.

  • Enter and exit driveways and alleys slowly and carefully.

  • Eliminate any distractions inside your car so you can concentrate on the road and your surroundings.

  • Drive slowly, anticipate heavy pedestrian traffic, and turn your headlights on earlier in the day to spot children from greater distances.

  • Popular trick-or-treating hours are 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. so be especially alert for kids during those hours.

Celebrating Halloween is not something that has to end once you’ve outgrown trick or treating, but it’s also not a reason to endanger your own life or the lives of others. As Halloween continues to be a popular night for drinking, drunk driving accidents are likely to continue. Even if you only plan on having a couple of drinks, stay safe and have a designated driver or use a service such as a ridesharing app. If you are not drunk, it is still necessary to take extra precautions, drive safely, and be aware of the increased amount of child pedestrians roaming the streets that evening. There is no way to assure car collisions won't happen on Halloween, but being aware of the dangers and having a plan for staying safe can help lower the risk to yourself and others.

Drunk driving is bad idea regardless of the time of year, and drunk driving accidents happen year round. If you have been involved in a drunk driving accident, call The Michigan Law Firm, PLLC at 844.4MI.FIRM for a free legal consultation. Let our attorneys handle your legal troubles while you recover.

Halloween Child Trick-or-Treat Road Safety

It’s almost Halloween, and while zombies and skeletons may be fictional, the dangers that exist on Halloween night are very real. Therefore, both kids and adults need to be thinking about pedestrian safety on Halloween night. According to Safe Kids, on average, twice as many child pedestrians are killed on Halloween compared to other days of the year. Dr. Rebecca Parker, chairwoman of the American College of Emergency Physicians' board of directors, told U.S. News and World Report that most of these child pedestrian car accidents occur between 4 PM and 10 PM, as kids anxious for candy start hitting the streets when the sun starts to set, making it harder for drivers to see. However, Dr. Leticia Manning, an injury researcher at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, added that these motor vehicle accidents are not always the driver’s fault. Children are often wearing masks that make it difficult for them to see, wearing costumes they could trip over, and are generally excited, making their movements more unpredictable.

According to the National Security Council, October ranks second for motor vehicle deaths per month. More so, pedestrian death or injuries of those ages 5 to 9 occur most commonly when the child darts or runs into the road. Dr. Sarah Denny, an emergency room physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, confirms this. She says that the majority of child pedestrian accidents do not occur in the crosswalk. Since the dangers of Halloween night shouldn't be downplayed, Safe Kids has some suggestions as to how to stay safe while having fun during trick-or-treating.

Halloween Road Safety Tips For Kids

  • Cross the streets at corners, using traffic signals and crosswalks.

  • Look left, right, and left again when crossing and keep looking as you cross.

  • Put your electronic devices down and keep heads up and walk, don’t run, across the street.

  • Always walk on sidewalks or paths. If there are no sidewalks, walk facing traffic as far to the left as possible.

  • Children under the age of 12, should not be alone at night without adult supervision.

  • Decorate your costumes and bags with reflective tape or stickers and, if possible, choose light colors.

  • Choose face paint and makeup whenever possible instead of masks, which can obstruct your vision.

  • Carry glow sticks or flashlights to help you see and be seen by drivers.

  • When selecting a costume, make sure it is the right size to prevent trips and falls.

Trick-or-treating should be a fun night for both kids and adults, but it is important to be aware of the dangers that exist. Halloween scares such as poisonous candy or razor blades in apples are less common occurrences than pedestrian accidents. Parents educating their kids, as well as kids being proactive about smart costume choices and safe pedestrian habits, may help kids stay safe while enjoying trick-or-treating. While these tip can't guarantee that a pedestrian car accident won't happen, parents and kids should make sure they are doing everything in their power to help lower their risk of being involved in a car crash.

Pedestrian car accidents can occur on any night, any time of year. If you or a loved one have been the victim of a pedestrian accident, call The Michigan Law Firm, PLLC at 844.4MI.FIRM for a free legal consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. 

Clown Horror Movie 'It' Marks Start of Halloween Season

Fall is a beautiful time of year. With changing leaves, apple cider, football games, and pumpkin flavored everything, what's not to like about the changing of the seasons? Well, as anyone with a fear of clowns may remember, this time last year, the streets were flooded with creepy clowns. Clowns were everywhere, and The Michigan Law Firm, PLLC blog even wrote about the clown sighting, as what started out as a creepy, but generally harmless prank, ended up having deadly consequences.

Readers may recall that a 16-year old boy in Reading, Pennsylvania died after getting into a fight with someone dressed as a clown, and in Wisconsin, clowns were chasing cars in the streets. Right here in Michigan, a clown reportedly attacked a 7-year old in Sterling Heights. As a result of the creepy clown craze, many establishments started banning people in clown costumes from entering, and some halloween stores stopped selling clown costumes all together. It was a bizarre and terrifying phenomenon that preoccupied Americans throughout the fall of last year.

This Fall, while there have yet to be reports of actual clown sightings, one famous one is leaving his calling card in various cities around the world. Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, which was first made into a miniseries that debuted in 1990, has been rebooted into a movie, and premiered on September 8, 2017. Leading up to the release, the trademark of Pennywise the killer clown, a red balloon tied to a storm grate, has been found in cities around the world. On September 5, 2017, in a now viral Facebook post, the Lititz Borough Police Department in Pennsylvania reported finding red balloons tied to storm grates throughout their town. Down under, in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, pedestrians also noticed the balloons popping up on their streets. Luckily for all of us, it does not appear as though Pennywise was behind it. In Pennsylvania, 5 teenaged girls admitted to placing the balloons as a way to scare their classmates who were excited about the movie. In Australia, the red balloons were used as a promotional campaign for the release of the movie.

Spooky pranks such as dressing up as a clown or leaving red balloons around town may seem fun and innocent, but the consequences can go much further than planned. Trying to scare people may seem harmless enough, but what if those people are driving a car? Motorists who are calmly driving down the road are likely to be startled at best and petrified at worst, by a clown jumping out into the road, seeming coming out of thin air, and chasing them down the road. Being scared while operating a motor vehicle could potentially result in the driver taking their focus off of the road, which for even a second could cause a car collision. Seeing a red on a grate while passing through an intersection could have a similar distracted driving car crash effect. Even if people aren't scared by seeing the balloon and realizing it's implication, they could take their hands off the wheel to point it out to a friend or try and take a picture.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,477 people died in 2015 alone, due to distracted driving accidents. While many people associate distracted driving with texting or talking on a cell phone, being chased by a clown or seeing red balloons in your street can be pretty distracting too. Nobody wants to call their car insurance company or a car accident lawyer and have to tell the embarrassing story of how they totaled their car because they saw a red balloon coming out of the sewer!

So, leading up to Halloween this year, everyone should remember to have a good time, but to have a safe time, by doing things that don't involve public pranks.

Cell phone related distracted driving accidents are not the only kind of distracted driving car crash. Whether it's a hyper pet in the back seat or a creepy Halloween decoration, anything that momentarily causes a driver to take their eyes off the road could cause a car crash. If you or a loved one have been the victim of a distracted driving car collision, call The Michigan Law Firm, PLLC at 844.4MI.FIRM for a free legal consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. 

The Creepy Clown Craze Is Sweeping The Nation

Sightings of creepy clowns have become far to common of an occurrence in the last month and have only been increasing with Halloween around the corner. What started as a joke is not something many people are finding funny anymore. There have been reports of everything from arrests to even a death that has been attributed to these types of clown incidents. Just last month, the death of a 16-year-old in Reading, Pennsylvania was attributed to someone wearing a clown mask. According to Fox News, police in eastern Pennsylvania found a 16-year-old who was stabbed to death during a fight that broke out after a person showed up wearing a clown mask. Authorities said the incident happened the night of Sunday, September 25th around 8:30 p.m. in Reading, located about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

It appears as it came out of nowhere, but the clown craze quickly swept the nation. In another crazy story involving clowns, a Wisconsin couple is facing child neglect charges after they allegedly left their 4-year-old child at home for hours to take part in a “creepy clown” prank. According to NBC Chicago, during the early morning hours on Friday, October 9th, police received reports of two men in clown masks chasing vehicles in Menasha, near Green Bay. A 20-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were found at the intersection of Appleton Road and Midway Road dressed in full clown costumes, according to the Menasha Police Department, as dash-cam video recorded police taking them into custody. A 26-year-old woman was also found in the area and is accused of driving the two men around during the “gag,” police said in a news release. Police said their investigation later revealed the woman and the 29-year-old man had left their 4-year-old child at home unattended for “a minimum of a few hours while they were out participating in this prank.” The child was placed outside of the home by the Department of Human Services and the parents have been referred to court on charges of child neglect. The 20-year-old man was not charged in the incident.

Clown incidents have become so dangerous, that now clown costumes and clown masks are being banned from stores, and even whole counties. According to USA Today, Kemper County in Mississippi has made it illegal for any public appearance of clowns through November 1st, the day after Halloween. So, any children or adults planning on being a clown for Halloween, will have to choose another costume. County officials deemed the recent clown-scares sweeping the nation as justification for the decision to make clown appearances illegal until the day after Halloween. Those who dare to put on a clown costume, mask, or makeup are subject to a fine up to $150 if they are caught by the local sheriff's office.

Some companies are also making the decision to not offer clown masks for purchase in stores or online. According to CNN Money, Target decided two weeks before Halloween that they would pull some clown masks off their shelves and out of their online store after sightings of menacing clowns across the country. "Given the current environment," Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said, "We have made the decision to remove a variety of clown masks from our assortment, both in stores and online." Home Depot took a similar step last month and pulled a Halloween decoration called the Scary Peeper Creeper from its stores in Canada following complaints from shoppers.

Clown have also been spotted here, in Michigan with one such sighting in Sterling Heights. According to The Detroit News, Police are investigating claims that people dressed up as clowns attacked a 7-year-old boy and scared two women in Sterling Heights, the latest in a series of Metro Detroit scary clown sightings. The child reported someone wearing a clown mask with “red hair, a red nose and red facial features” approached him outside his home on the night of Tuesday, October 4th. The person, whose gender was unclear, then allegedly wielded an object and scratched the youth’s arm before fleeing on foot, the child told authorities. Broadcast media reports said the suspected assailant had a knife, but police would not confirm that. Fortunately, The boy was not seriously hurt in the attack.

Some of these incidents have proven to cause harm or even be fatal, which makes clowns a serious problem. It's important to know that this kind of action can result in problems for not only those who witness creepy clowns, but also for those who are just trying to have fun. Victims of clown sighting may try to attack or even shoot clowns who get the jump on them causing harm to both parties. Others may even suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from the fright of seeing and fending off a clown attacker. And in the instance that one of the parties is in a car, the sight of a clown is scary enough to cause drivers or pedestrians to loose their wits for a moment, causing a car accident. Pulling silly pranks just for a laugh is not worth the damage that can and has been caused in these incidents.

Have you or anyone you know been injured due to a distracted driver or have been involved in an accident caused by a distraction? If so, call The Michigan Law Firm today. Our attorneys are highly experienced in dealing with all types of accident cases and will work to get you the help that you need. Call us today, at 844.4MI.FIRM, for a free consultation.