Youngsters decked out as everything from princesses to zombies will be ringing doorbells throughout the our area during the next few evenings, primed to yell “trick or treat” when someone opens the door. After collecting a dietician’s nightmare of candy and other sweet goodies, they will go home to show off their hauls.

That’s how it goes, year after year, at Halloween time. It is up to adults to ensure nothing more happens this time around.

Lists of trick-or-treat safety recommendations are released by the dozens during late October. They amount mostly to adults using our common sense – and recognizing that youngsters going out in costume rely almost exclusively on their trust in us to keep them from harm.

That may well be the most important Halloween safety advice: Precautions have to be kid-proof.

By that, we mean that hammering it into children that they must look both ways before crossing the street is not a guarantee against them darting out in front of cars. Requiring them to carry flashlights does not always mean they will have the devices switched on.

Of course, we need to try to make the youngsters as safe as possible through precautions such as ensuring they can be seen by motorists.

But we’re the adults. We’re the bottom line on safety. That means driving especially carefully during trick-or-treat season – which is critically important in many local communities with major highways. It means going with young children or ensuring a responsible teenager does.

It means taking several steps – every one of them simple common sense – to keep the kids safe so that this year, the only real scare is the youngster with the very realistic zombie outfit.