HERSHEY, Pa. — Even if no one’s wearing a spooky costume, Halloween can turn scary in an instant. Why? The fun and excitement of trick-or-treat night can make children (and adults) prone to accidents and injuries.
“It’s easy to get distracted when you’re seeing friends, looking at everyone’s costumes and admiring the decorations on the houses nearby,” said Emmy Sasala, an injury prevention specialist at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. “And all that’s happening around dusk, when it’s dark out, a time of day when injuries are more common.”
About 3,200 Halloween-related injuries are treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments each year, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Some are even fatal. On Halloween, kids are two to 10 times as likely to be hit and killed by a car than on any other day of the year, research published in JAMA Pediatrics shows…