The scariest part of Halloween is our unsafe streets. | Shutterstock.com

It?s not the costumes or the candy?it?s the cars Forget skeletons and zombies, ghosts and goblins. If you want to wear the costume that should scare kids the most, dress like an SUV. Children are nearly twice as likely to be killed in car crashes on Halloween night.
Halloween is a notoriously congested day on city streets. Vehicular volumes surge as parents rush home to take their kids trick-or-treating?right at the same moment that families start to hit the sidewalks in search of candy.
That simultaneous burst of increased pedestrian activity and increased car traffic is a deadly combination. A study by University of British Columbia researchers looked at 42 years of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration?s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data. Halloween night was, on average, 43 percent more deadly for pedestrians than other autumn nights. The highest rates of fatal crashes were seen for kids aged 4 to 8 around 6 p.m. But when the commuting drivers are removed from the equation, deaths seem to go down. A study by AutoInsurance.org used FARS data to compare 24 years of crash data by days of the week. Halloweens that fell on workdays had an 83 percent increase in deadly crashes involving kids compared to weekend days. The worst day" Friday. Since 1994, the three deadliest Halloween nights for kids have all been Friday nights.
Last year, an online petition sponsored by...