11-year-old trick-or-treater crossing road dies when car hits him, Atlanta police say
An 11-year-old boy was struck and killed while out trick-or-treating on Halloween in southeast Atlanta, authorities say.
Police arrived at the scene just before 8:20 p.m. and found a child had been hit by a car, according to a news release.
The boy had been standing on the sidewalk with several other kids, police said, before he stepped into the street and tried to cross Memorial Drive. That’s when a driver hit him.
The child, whose name was not released by police, was taken to a nearby hospital where he died. Police said the driver stayed on scene.
The crash is still being investigated, but authorities said they do not expect any charges to be filed.
A 2019 Washington Post analysis of federal highway safety data found that kids are three times as likely to be hit and killed by a car on Halloween than any other day of the year. Children under 18 accounted for 54 pedestrian fatalities on the holiday between 2004 and 2018.
A similar report published in JAMA Pediatrics found that kids aged 4-8 were almost 10 times more likely to be killed Halloween night and “that the 6 p.m. hour — a confluence of rush hour and sunset in many parts of the country — was the deadliest time for trick-or-treaters to be on the road,” the newspaper reported.
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 7:56 AM with the headline "11-year-old trick-or-treater crossing road dies when car hits him, Atlanta police say."