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By Jacobs Library Committee

Autumn leaves, pumpkins, scarecrows, Halloween. It is a time of year young children look forward to with great anticipation. Costumes have been in the stores for week, and pumpkins are ready to be carved into scary jack-o-lanterns.

Along with all the excitement there also come news stories with tips to make trick-or-treating activities safe. Commentators recall stories from previous years of poisoned candy and youngsters killed or injured while trick-or-treating.

But is Halloween really more dangerous than any other day? The unfortunate truth is yes. Four times more children are killed by motor vehicles on Halloween than on any other day of the year. This is a statistic from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but it does not tell the whole story.

The data analyzed only includes deaths occurring on public roads. It does not include accidents that occur in driveways, parking lots and on sidewalks.

There are holiday specific problems responsible for these numbers - dark costumes, for example -- but other factors are also involved. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report suggests that young children spend most of their time playing outdoors during daylight hours and are unaccustomed to playing in the dark.

The report also cites the development of trick-or-treat aged children as contributing to the problem. Young children are short and not easily visible to drivers, often choose the shortest route to cross a street rather than the safest, disregard peripheral vision, and lack sufficient impulse control.

Furthermore, some children engage in "magical thinking," viewing the painted crosswalk as a protected safe area. The report says that most children do not develop adequate street-crossing skills until the age of 12.

So as Halloween approaches, if you are driving a car, remember to proceed with caution and do not become responsible for a young trick-or-treater becoming a fatal statistic for next year's report.