How to keep your family safe while trick-or-treating this Halloween

Whether you'll be trick-or-treating or handing out candy, the Red Cross has tips (no tricks) to keep your family safe this Halloween.

Transcript

00:00But all of this week will be full of Halloween events do no matter when or how you plan to

00:05celebrate. Annette Rowland of the American Red Cross is here with some tips to make Halloween

00:11safe. And we just love your Halloween decorations there in the back room and those can even be

00:16causing some safety concerns with wind. So we want to break it down. Let's start with

00:20trick-or-treating for folks that are planning to trick-or-treat this Halloween. How do you keep

00:24this scary fun but keep it safe too? Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. You might be

00:32able to tell but I'm really excited and I try to teach my kids one of the main things about

00:37Halloween is making sure that you are being safe. So using those crosswalks, making sure you're

00:43looking right and left before you cross, and for parents making sure that you're accompanying your

00:48children and putting down the cell phones and paying attention. I think that's key and also

00:53teaching your children how to call 9-1-1 in case of an emergency they know what to do. Well let's

00:59talk about the costumes next. How do you make sure that the kids' costumes are safe and what should

01:05you remind them to do? Yeah costumes are fun. We've got the scary ghosts, we've got the witches,

01:12we've got everything. But I think what's most important is making sure that you can be seen.

01:16It's dark out there when you're trick-or-treating a lot of times. So making sure that you have

01:20flashlights or glow sticks. I was actually going to bring my flashlights to show you

01:24but unfortunately the battery's dead so I've got to change those. But making sure that

01:29you have some type of lighting item on you to make sure that people are seeing you because

01:36people are coming home, they're driving home from work when the sun goes down. So making

01:40sure that your children are seen is important. All right so what other things should parents

01:45plan during trick-or-treating? What should we need to keep an eye out for and keep any kind

01:49of hazards away from the kids? Yeah so make sure that you're checking your kids' candy. You want

01:56to check before they want to make sure that you're telling your children and instances that could be

02:04in there that could cause them harm. But also for people who may be handing out candy to the

02:09children, make sure that you you take a look at your driveways, at your porches and sweep those

02:14so there's no hazards, tripping hazards that could hurt someone. Making sure that your porch

02:19is well lit so kids and parents feel safe coming to that area as well. And I think it's important

02:26for kids to remember, don't ever step foot inside of someone's home. Make sure that

02:37walks and make sure that you are seen. Annette Rowland of the American Red Cross,

02:43thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.