Surrey Mounties are reminding trick-or-treaters to wear something that will make themselves visible to motorists on Halloween night this Sunday.
“Consider getting some of those glow sticks or whatever on your kids,” Sgt. Elenore Sturko advises. “It’s so dark, we just want to keep safety in the front of their thoughts, watch out for kids running out across the street.”
Police will be bumping up their patrols this weekend to keep an eye on all things that go bump in the night. And bang, too.
“Fireworks are not allowed in the city of Surrey without special permitting,” Sturko noted. “Last year our officers collected just bins and bins of fireworks that they seized off of particularly even young people. They can be really dangerous, you know.”
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Fireworks permits are issued by the Surrey Fire Service Fire Prevention Branch and require a certificate of liability insurance, minimum $2 million. The city’s fireworks bylaw says they can’t be possessed by people under age 18 and violations carrying a minimum fine of $100 and maximum fine of $5,000, plus the cost of prosecution.
“For us, particularly when Halloween falls on a Sunday like it is, we anticipate that there will be gatherings and people celebrating the entire weekend from Friday night all the way to Sunday, which can be busy. We often get a lot of fireworks at this time of year both with Halloween and then Diwali coming up, so we do increase patrols, they bring in extra members on overtime and then we’re going to be really encouraging people – it’s so dark and stormy right now – to make sure that if they’re out on foot that they have reflective items.”
Anyone with a fireworks-related complaint in Surrey is asked to call the bylaws call centre at 606-591-4370 before 6 p.m. or the Surrey RCMP non-emergency line at 604-599-0502 after 6 p.m.
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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