Halloween can be a time for mischief and that mischief can turn deadly, as it almost did in 1976 when an object thrown from a bridge over the New York State Thruway smashed the windshield of a truck below. The shattered glass injured the driver, who was talking on his citizens band radio at the time. The other CB radio operator heard that the trucker was in distress and decided immediately that she and two friends would bring their radios to that overpass and two others in their county and stand watch the next evening.

New York State police now conduct the Pumpkin Patrol in various counties traversed by the Thruway and for more than four decades, ham radio operators have been there too. This year the teams of volunteer radio operators will be out on the nights of October 30th and 31st, keeping in constant touch with a net control station that can call for emergency response if necessary.

They are, of course, hoping it will not be necessary.