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Police hoping for a safe and fun Halloween in Nanaimo

Oct 31, 2016 | 10:30 AM

NANAIMO — Police are expecting thousands of children and parents on the streets of Nanaimo for Halloween.

The bulk of them will be out between the hours of 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

There’s a reasonable chance of precipitation and visibility will be low, so RCMP Constable Gary O’Brien hopes parents will take that into account when planning their child’s Halloween costume.

“Make sure there’s no tripping hazards, kids can see out of them, and they’re not too long,” said O’Brien.

“I’m hoping parents will think ahead and have flashlights for their children.

Not everyone takes part in Halloween and O’Brien says it’s a good rule of thumb to only trick or treat at homes with the lights on.

Of course parents should always examine all of the goodies collected before allowing their child to eat anything.

After two recent fatal incidents with teenagers being hit while crossing the road, crosswalk safety should be top of mind for everyone in Nanaimo.

Intersection safety on Halloween needs to involve drivers, parents, and children.

O’Brien says young children especially get excited while trick or treating, so parents should keep a hold of their child’s hand at intersections.    

“With the little ones parents have to hold on to their hand, because they want to go from point A to point B in the quickest way possible. Hold on to them, get it instilled into them that they need to cross safely.  

And make sure that before you enter that crosswalk that you have to make eye contact with a car to make sure that it’s slowing down,” said O’Brien.   

There is a spike in call volumes for local police on Halloween according to O’Brien but he says those calls have gone down since a bylaw prohibiting fireworks went into place in 2007.

“That’s significantly reduced the number of calls that we deal with,” said O’Brien.  “People should know that fireworks are prohibited.  

The only way that you can have those or discharge them is if you have a permit from the fire chief.  A permit has to be in and approved within 14 days of Halloween.”

RCMP will have marked police cruisers out during the night and plain clothes officers will help to keep the community safe as well.

But O’Brien notes that most people in Nanaimo are well behaved.

There were a number of Halloween parties over the weekend but police report that there weren’t very many incidents.