Dangerous Drivers At ‘Trunk-Or-Treat’ Show How Cars Are A Horror For Kids All Year Long
Halloween is supposed to scary fun for kids — but the other 364 days of the year are just scary.
That’s why local officials and the NYPD are increasingly hosting “Trunk-or-Treat” events — except even these events offer no promise of safety for kids: On Thursday, an apparently drunk driver crashed through a “Trunk or Treat” event at the 83rd Precinct station house in Brooklyn, injuring six people.
It was more evidence that cars are always a threat to kids — and even when they’re stationary, the feeling of safety is only temporary.
Case in point: At a trunk-or-treat event on Saturday inside Juniper Valley Park, Streetsblog found that 12 of the 13 candy-dispensing drivers had at least one school-zone speeding violation.
One driver had racked up 32 such tickets, another had 20 and a third had 12.
In other words, when these drivers are in motion, they’re playing a very grave trick on the very same children to whom they were handing out treats.
Even the guy who drove recklessly through school zones 32 times — 28 times since 2020 — knows how important it is to keep kids safe … from drivers like himself.
“You’ve got to worry about all these speeding drivers,” said Alex Talalay, who drove to the event from Staten Island. “This is absolutely a lot smarter than just going from house to house.”
This is not a knock on Council Member Phil Wong (D-Middle Village) who has been organizing Trunk or Treat events such as this one. Wong doesn’t have a spotless record on livable streets issues, but he’s been very vocal lately about pointing out that kids and cars don’t mix well.
Wong told Streetsblog that he was pleased with the event because it was safe and turnout was good, with more than 100 families attending. It’s no surprise, after all, that families are excited to bring their kids to a place where they don’t have to worry about them because the threat of speeding cars has been eliminated. (Fourteen kids have been killed by drivers so far this year, more than double last year’s six, according to Transportation Alternatives.)
Advocates — even those who push for fewer cars in the city — agree.
“Trunk-or-treat is proof that when we remove the danger caused by cars — in this case, by having them parked — families fill the space, and it creates opportunities for kids to have a great time; even the most dangerous drivers don’t pose a risk when we remove conflicts,” said Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans. “We shouldn’t limit this to one type of trick-or-treating, or one night a year. On Halloween, we should transform our city’s streets into open spaces, so the car-free majority of households can safely and joyfully participate in door-to-door trick-or-treating. The other 364 days a year, let’s turn our streets back to the people, and give our kids a childhood of shooting hoops, walking to school or the park, and enjoying time outdoors without having to worry about their safety. We already know what works; we just need to think bigger.”
At least on Halloween, which is widely considered the most-dangerous night of the year for kids, the Department of Transportation is transforming more and more streets into pedestrian-centered Halloween havens. The agency’s Trick-or-Streets program still has more than two-dozen events remaining, most on Oct. 31 itself.
But it raises the question: if the city knows how to keep children safe for Halloween — by keeping cars away from kids — why not deploy that strategy more frequently and across a wider swath of the city? Indeed, Mayor Mamdani alluded to the dangers of cars in his statement for the DOT’s Trick-or-Streets press release: “The only cars you should see at Trick-or-Streets are the ones made of cardboard, powered by two legs and fueled by a lot of sugar.”
That’s something we could all live with for the remaining 364 days of the year.
In addition to the DOT’s Trick-or-Streets events, there are a few more Trunk-or-Treat events on the Streetsblog calendar.
