Oceanside police crackdown on Halloween road safety due to heightened risks
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Halloween is the ultimate pedestrian holiday and local law enforcement took to the road Tuesday night, cracking down on drivers breaking the law.
FOX 5 got a firsthand look at their Halloween operations from the not-so-comfortable back seat of an Oceanside Police Department patrol car, all for good reason.
As with every trick-or-treating excursion, children galivanted around neighborhoods in costumes with candy top of mind. But for Officer Andrew Davidson, safety was his main priority.
Halloween is a holiday infamously known as one to stir danger along the roadways, given its heavy pedestrian activity and other adult festivities.
According to local statistics from Circulate San Diego, people ages 21 to 34 account for the highest percentage of drunk driving incidents that result in fatalities Halloween night.
Meanwhile, children are two to three times more likely to be those killed by drivers on the holiday, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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“If you’re impaired, you’re more likely to be in an auto collision,” Davidson said, “and if you’re hitting a child pedestrian, you’re more likely to cause a fatality.”
The pervasive issue is something that’s left some young trick-or-treaters at their wits end.
“It would help if we had speed bumps on the street, because people just race down the street and they don’t even care,” one young Halloween-goer shared with FOX 5 Tuesday night while out on the hunt for something sweet.
Davidson says drinks or no drinks, it’s a time of year prone to accidents, like one FOX 5 encountered while out with OPD Tuesday evening that left a motorcycle driver severely injured.
As he explained, people need to “remember that, not only are you responsible for your kids that are running around, but if you’re driving a vehicle and you’re going home, you’re kind of responsible for all the children that are out there as well.”
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