(Radio Iowa) – Halloween is one of the deadliest nights of the year for pedestrians, according to a University of Iowa researcher who studies how to make roads, sidewalks and crossings safer. Elizabeth O’Neal, a U-I professor of community and behavioral health, says costumed kids get excited — and distracted — while trick-or-treating and that can be a dangerous combination when it comes to crossing a street.  “There are more pedestrians out on the roadways, crossing streets than usual,” O’Neal says. “Second, it’s dark, which makes pedestrians more difficult to see. Also, many of the costumes are dark, which makes children even more difficult to see, because we do know that more pedestrian deaths occur at nighttime.”

Parents can drill into a child how they need to look both ways before crossing the street, but they may have to repeatedly reinforce that mantra during trick-or-treat night. O’Neal says kids who are a little older might be in even greater danger. “They’re often trick-or-treating without parents at a time when being with their peers results in them wanting to engage in riskier behavior,” O’Neal says, “so that can pose an even greater risk to those older kids during trick-or-treating.”

Parents play a key role in helping to keep their kids safe, and a few cosmetic changes to a costume could make a tremendous difference in their visibility without destroying the spooky illusion. “If the costume doesn’t need to be black and dark, that’s always helpful,” O’Neal says. “Using glow sticks and bracelets to help illuminate pedestrians. And if children are going to be alone, just emphasizing there’s plenty of time to get to the next house, so take the time to make sure there aren’t any cars coming before crossing the street.”

O’Neal and the U-I team have done extensive research with dozens of Iowa City-area parents and kids in a virtual reality simulator, having them cross a computer-generated road with approaching cars. The findings reinforce the dangers of peer pressure. “When children are alone, they choose gaps that are appropriate for a single individual to cross through,” she says, “but when older children, say 12 years old, are crossing together, they don’t choose gaps that are large enough to accommodate both crossers.”

One recent U-I study found kids learn to be better and safer at crossing busy streets when they have hand-in-hand help from their parents.