Not missing the opportunity to scare parents right before Halloween, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report the number of deaths among young pedestrians (i.e., trick-or-treaters) is fourfold higher on Halloween evening than all other evenings of the year.
During 1975 to 1996, from 4 p.m. through 10 p.m. on October 31, a total of 89 deaths occurred among pedestrians aged 5 to 14 years, compared with 8,846 on all other evenings. This works out to about 4 deaths each Halloween, compared to 1 death on all other evenings.
I guess it never occurred to the CDC that there must be a gazillion-fold increase in child pedestrians during Halloween. If they were to compare death rates, instead of just numbers of deaths, I'll bet they would find the child pedestrian death rate actually decreases on Halloween. After all, trick-or-treaters travel in easy-to-see packs; parents go out with their little monsters; and drivers are likely to be more aware of trick-or-treaters.
So if you really want to be really scary this Halloween, get dressed up as a CDC epidemiologist!
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