Those involved in the car insurance quote business get to read a lot of road safety statistics, so come Halloween recently I made sure my kids exercised extra caution when out trick or treating; in some places, Halloween is the time when children are most likely to be injured on the roads.

Quite simply, Halloween is a time of revelry, for both adults and children. Teenagers and young adults often take to the roads, sometimes drunkenly, while the younger ones weave their way enthusiastically through their neighbourhoods filling their greedy little sacks with goodies.

This combination can be a dangerous mix. As such, I always make sure that the costumes I’ve prepared for my beloved offspring are not uniformly black and instead have plenty of “high visibility” details.


Like many girls of her age my 13-year-old daughter is utterly obsessed with the musical Wicked. She wanted to be in all black with a dark green foundation. After sticking my oar in, I convinced her to go with a black gown, a fluorescent yellow hat and an assortment of glow sticks.

My 11-year-old boy, who had been determined to go as a “dead goth music star”, was artfully persuaded to go as a luminescent skeleton.

But, most importantly of all, my two children as part of a group of six assorted friends were followed by a team of three conscientious adults, all of whom were wearing high-visibility bibs and carrying pumpkin lanterns.

It may not be cool, but I like Halloween to be gory and ghoulish for all the right reasons.