Happy Halloween! The day is finally here for kids to dress up in their favorite costumes and take to the streets trick-or-treating. Before you send your princesses, witches, zombies and ghosts out tonight, make sure they’ll be safe.
Here are 15 Halloween trick-or-treating safety tips provided by the Hillsborough Police Department, as found on the department’s Facebook page:
1) Make sure costumes are flame retardant so children aren't in danger near burning jack-o-lanterns.
2) Keep costumes short to prevent trips, falls, and other bumps in the night.
3) Try make-up instead of a mask. Masks can be hot and uncomfortable, and they can obstruct a child's vision, a dangerous thing when kids are crossing streets and going up and down steps.
4) Make sure kids wear light colors or put reflective tape on their costumes.
5) Create a map of a safe trick-or treating route and set a time limit for your children to "trick-or-treat".
6) Trick-or-treaters should always be in groups so they aren't a tempting target for real-life goblins. Parents should accompany young children.
7) Make sure older kids trick-or-treat with friends. Together, map out a safe route so you will know where they are going. Tell them to stop only at familiar homes where the outside lights are on.
8) Try to get your kids to trick-or-treat while it's still light out. If it's dark, make sure someone has a flashlight and pick well-lighted streets.
9) Do not go inside anyone’s home. Remain on the porch at all times.
10) Do not accept rides from strangers.
11) Remind kids to keep a safe distance from moving cars.
12) Cross only at street corners, never between parked cars, and never diagonally across an intersection. Look all ways before crossing.
13) Do not take shortcuts through back yards, alleys or parks.
14) Do not eat any treats until parents have inspected them.
15) Discard any homemade or unwrapped treats.
Also, remember that Broadway in Burlingame holds trick-or-treating between noon and 4 p.m.
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