Halloween is supposed to be dark, spooky and scary. But it should be fun scary, not dangerous scary, and there is difference between jumping high from a sudden “BOOO!” and getting hurt and landing in the ER. A link to a Washington Post article on why Halloween is so dangerous to kids landed in our inbox the other day and they the got it surprisingly right. Traffic and cars are BY FAR the biggest danger to kids on Halloween and that year-around infrastructure improvements are needed to keep wakers and bicyclists safe on Halloween and all other days of the year.
No Halloween costume is complete for neighborhood trick-or-treating without safety reflectors.
However, today’s trick-or-treating kids will not wait for years to have safer streets, so how do you help your kids (teens included!) be safe on Halloween right now? Here are our Halloween Safety Tips for 2022:
1. Use safety reflectors. At least two (front and back – or – left and right), preferably more and let them dangle. 2. Talk traffic safety with your kids – start BEFORE Halloween, or even better, discuss traffic safety with your kids year-around. 3. Be a good role model: Follow traffic rules both when walking and driving and wear safety reflectors when out and about after dark. 4. Remind drivers of all ages about trick-or-treaters and about the importance of putting away distractions while driving and keeping to the speed limit.
Stylish Safety Reflectors
We believe safety reflectors should be as stylish and fun as costumes, makeup and other Halloween accessories. Therefore, we have over the years expanded our collection of ghosts and jack O’Lantern safety reflectors to also include skulls, ninjas, which hats, bats and cats. And then of course any of our other reflectors might be a good fit depending on the costume theme. If you are a parent accompanying your kids and want something sleeker than a ghost, get some safety reflectors that are designed with grown-ups in mind here!
Pick your favorite Halloween safety reflector. Hint: there is no “better”, they are all super bright!
The evenings are getting darker, the leaves are turning to beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange and Halloween is just around the corner. Time to plan costumes and decoration, but also to prep your teens and kids for a safe and fun night. Drivers not seeing trick-or-treaters is the number one Halloween safety concern that should be on every adult’s mind this week. It is not too late to order funflector reflectors to help keep them seen and safe. We have a wide range of reflectors, including some ultra-bright Halloween reflectors that are fun and stylish. From bright orange jack-o-lantern to a more discreet black cat, there is something for everyone. To make sure you get them in time for Halloween, order them by Monday, November 25 at noon CST.
Children trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Good reflectors make a difference to their visibility and safety.
Halloween is just a week away and it’s time not just to plan costumes and decoration but also to prep your teens and kids for a safe and fun night. Drivers not seeing trick-or-treaters is the number one halloween safety concern that should be on every adult’s mind this week. It is not too late to order funflector reflectors, ultra-bright Halloween reflectors that are fun and stylish. The Ninja and Ninja star safety reflectors are sailing up as our best sellers this year! From now to Halloween, we’ll promise to get any orders out our door within 24 hours.
Are you looking for Halloween safety tips to share with your kids? We certainly hope so, but we also hope that you focus on where the real danger is – TRAFFIC!!! Enjoy Halloween and don’t go nuts worrying about things that rarely happen. We have written about this earlier years and we will keep doing it until every trick-or-treater wear reflectors!
When we look at statistics of what accidents actually happens on Halloween, there is one type that pops out: pedestrian accidents. Cars are the number one threat to trick-or-treaters and sadly, Halloween is the deadliest night all year for kid pedestrians. The graph below shows fatalities per day. Look at October 31st! The threat from cars and drivers is real. For every fatal accident, there are also about 10 seriously injured kids…
Child pedestrian fatalities by day of the year. How long did it take for you to spot Halloween? Klick on the image to get to the original article.
Let’s focus on Halloween safety tips that make a significant difference. …
We can’t wait for Sunday and the Streets Alive Festival in Evanston IL! Last year, we had a great time at the Green Living Festival in Evanston, but the idea of combining the two festivals is totally awesome!
We’ll be there with America’s premier reflectors for walking, running and bicycling and with information on how you can use reflectors for marketing your brand to touch hearts and save lives 🙂
The Streets Alive + Green Living Festival takes place on Main Street in Evanston, IL this coming Sunday, September 13th, 1-6 PM. A map of all the activities can be found on the festival’s website. Please look for the black funflector canopy in the Green Living Festival section between Ridge and Ashbury and stop by for some treats!
The funflector booth at the Evanston Green Living Festival 2014. This year we’ll have space for our full booth 🙂
We believe that making “green choices” is important for all people on earth, and having the choice of walking/biking instead of driving is part of that. However, walkable neighborhoods do a lot of good to people in terms of general health and building a sense of community. The philosophy of the Streets Alive is right up our alley: “Streets Alive also encourages the community to collectively reimagine and repurpose our precious public spaces. Although car-free streets are temporary, they help us visualize different ways to use these spaces, and they demonstrate the pent-up demand for permanently safe, complete streets and vibrant, people-oriented open spaces.”
20 days until Halloween! It’s time to order reflectors for everyone whose safety you care about. Choose anything from a wicked witch hat or a scary skull and crossbones to a handsome ghost.
A black cat or wicked witch hat, a skull, a ghost or a flying bat?
Halloween
To be scared is fun when it’s just for a night, but returning to life is for the bright. Be bright enough for drivers to see what along the road could be a goblin, a witch or ghost on the run out Trick-or-Treating just for fun. Your alter ego is easy to protect with a few fun things that reflect. The choices are many, the price is low no reason funflectors to forgo. A black cat or wicked witch hat, a skull, a ghost or a flying bat? Pick one, pick two or even three, a cool reflector for safety is key! Reflect yourself and your style, wake up next day with a smile!
Good reflectors should make pedestrians visible from a distance of 125 meters (410 feet), but we wanted to know if we could see our funflector® reflectors from even further away. Would they meet the 500 feet visibility target? However, first let us be clear about why we care so much about safety reflectors:
That is how much of a difference reflectors make! We found a dark street, straight for over 500 feet and with very little traffic. Here is what we saw of a pedestrian facing us with two reflectors hanging from front belt loops.The first image below was captured at 600 feet. We are very excited and pleased with the result since it is very important for us to provide as much safety as possible for our customers. A note of caution though: reality is rarely staged like this, so please wear at least two reflectors, but place one back and one front – OR- one left and one right. You never know exactly how you will be turned the moment the driver needs to see you! Alternatively, put a slap bracelet around your ankle, the visibility from all directions is pretty good unless you carry bags in your hands that hang low down.
What’s the best way to to be visible to drivers on Halloween – and on other dark nights? Many Halloween safety tips suggest flash lights, glow sticks or safety reflectors as equally viable options. We wanted to figure out how bright glow sticks from the local supermarket are compared to our funflector safety reflectors. This is what it looks like along a highway:
This is what we used : a thin multicolored glow necklace, a thick pink glow stick on a string, a thick green glow stick with a sword’s handle attached to it, 4 reflectors and two funflector wraps.
Glow sticks or safety reflectors for Halloween? For scale, the reflectors are about 2-1/2 inch across.
Interesting observations on glow sticks and safety reflectors:
When there are no cars around, the reflectors sometimes catch the light from a nearby traffic light. That’s why they give a reddish glow.
In the video, you can see how the light from passing cars only light up the lower half of the kids. That’s why it’s important to have reflectors low down. And you must have noticed the benefit of letting the reflectors dangle!
What you cannot see in the video is that the green glow stick, which was the brightest one, lasted less than 4 hours. The pink one had stopped glowing the next morning. The necklace, which only lid up half way around, kept glowing for several days. But you might have noticed that the necklace did not glow strongly enough to show up show up in the video…
Glow sticks are fun for kids to play with and they did light up a corner of a dark room. But, for traffic safety, you need to make sure they are significantly brighter than those we got.
Sadly, we now have a pile of glow sticks to add to landfill. The safety reflectors can be put on jackets and backpacks and provide safety for the whole dark season.
The glow sticks we bought lid up the corner of the room
This is the 7th year we celebrate Halloween in the US and I keep being surprised about longs lists of Halloween safety tips that circulates in media. When we look at statistics of what accidents actually happens on Halloween, there is one type that stands out: pedestrian accidents. Cars are the number one threat to trick-or-treaters and sadly, Halloween is the deadliest night all year for kid pedestrians. The graph below shows fatalities per day. Look at October 31st! The threat from cars and drivers is real. For every fatal accident, there are also about 10 seriously injured kids…
Child pedestrian fatalities by day of the year. How long did it take for you to spot Halloween? Klick on the image to get to the original article.
Let’s focus on the most important Halloween safety tips that make a significant difference:
#1 – Be Reflective (The Most Important Halloween Safety Tip!)
Here is what you need to know before buying reflector or reflective tape:
The power of reflectors depends on the reflective power per square inch and the size. A lesser quality reflective material needs a larger surface than a good quality material to reflect equally strongly back to the driver. There is no American standard that takes into account both the material and the surface, so we we follow EN13356, a European standard is for visibility accessories for non-professional use. All funflectors are made with 3M Scotchlite (one of the best reflective material on the market) and fulfill EN13356.
How many reflectors are needed for trick-or-treating?
One reflector can make wonders, but it may just as well be on the “wrong” side of the kid when a car comes by. We recommend at least two, one front and one back or one left and one right. We hang 4-5 on our kids, that’s still cheaper than most co-pays at the ER, less pain and more fun! If you use reflective tape, you also need to make sure it’s enough to be seen from multiple directions.
Safety reflectors increase your visibility the most when you hang them correctly – low and dangling!
#2 – Follow Traffic Rules
Most pedestrian accidents happen in the middle of the block. 1. Cross at intersections. 2. Use sidewalks and avoid busy streets without (or add another 3 reflectors to the outfit if you have to walk there). Practice, practice and practice BEFORE Halloween and supervise if your ghosts and goblins can’t handle it. With ADHD kids, you need to practice even more since they don’t always manage to judge the situation with approaching cars in safe manner. PRACTICE all year around!
#3 – Talk Safety with Kids
Studies shows that while most people talk about Halloween safety with their kids, only 1/3 do it every year. You need to talk about it several times in the weeks leading up to Halloween, not only when the kids are about to head out for trick-or-treating, too excited about costumes and candy to listen.
#4 – Educate Drivers
Here are some very good points from the State Farm Halloween Tips that you need to think about as a driver and talk to with friends and colleagues, especially those who don’t have kids at home. 1. Be alert for children and eliminate in-car distractions (cell phones, music, radio, friends,…) 2. Pull in and out of driveways carefully. 3. Slow down! 4. Practice extra caution at intersections and corners. 5. Discuss these and other driving pointers with your teen driver – or hide the car keys. Drivers ages 15–25 were involved in around one-third of fatal accidents involving child pedestrians on Halloween, according to the study.
— That’s it, Let’s Recap —
1. Use reflectors. If you don’t remember how many you need, just think that there can never be too many. 2. Follow Traffic Rules. You should know them, if not: study! 3.Talk Safety with Your Kids – start a week or two BEFORE Halloween 4. Remind Drivers, especially teen drivers, on being careful and alert every single minute they are in the car. So how about the flash light, tainted candy, ration the kid’s candy, inspecting candy and more? In our opinion, they are well meant, but draws attention from the real danger!
… before Halloween! One last weekend to head for the local pumpkin patch or a haunted house. Pumpkin Patches and More is an extensive directory of pumpkin patches by county. If you don’t see the links right away, just scroll down. They also have tips on carving pumkins, recepies and much more.
Jack O’Lantern Halloween Reflectors – cheaper by the dozen at the funflector webshop. Available in 5 and 12-packs.
If you hurry up, you can still order your Halloween decoration and costumes online. Vote with your wallet and buy American made products! Keepamerica.com has a large selection of cool Halloween items, all supporting US manufacturing. US made Halloween reflectors are of course available in our webshop! Don’t forget to check out our Halloween specials at shopinterest! We ship as fast as we can, but don’t wait much longer to place your order to get it in time!
Metal candy bucket, window decoration and bat earrings – all made in the US and available at keepamerica.com
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We\'ll assume you\'re ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Read More
Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user\'s experience more efficient. The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission. This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.
Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.
Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.
