Is Halloween the Deadliest Night for Pedestrians? US Data

Quick answer: Yes, Halloween evening is more dangerous for people on foot than an ordinary autumn evening, and the extra risk falls hardest on children. In the five Halloweens from 2020 to 2024, 74 pedestrians were killed in the US between 5pm and midnight on October 31, about 28% more per evening than on the same weekday one week earlier and one week later (116 deaths on those 10 comparison evenings), according to NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Eight children aged 15 or younger were killed as pedestrians on those five Halloweens, seven of them after 6pm, compared with four children on the ten comparison evenings. Halloween is not the single deadliest date of the year for pedestrians, though: that is New Year's Day.

Halloween compared with ordinary evenings

The fairest way to measure Halloween is to compare it with the same evening of the week just before and just after, so that weekday, weather season and daylight are almost the same. Using FARS files for 2020 to 2024:

• Halloween evenings (5pm to midnight): 74 pedestrian deaths, 14.8 per evening
• Comparison evenings, one week before and after: 116 deaths over 10 evenings, 11.6 per evening
• Whole day of October 31: 119 pedestrian deaths, against 100 on the same weekday a week earlier and 107 a week later

The deadliest hour on Halloween was 7pm to 8pm, with 23 of the 119 deaths, followed by 10pm (15) and 8pm (11). Those are the hours when trick-or-treating, dusk and the evening drive home overlap.

Children carry most of the extra risk

Child pedestrian deaths are rare on any single day, which is why the Halloween numbers stand out. Over the five Halloweens:

• 8 children aged 15 or under were killed while walking, against an average of about 0.55 child pedestrian deaths on an ordinary day
• 7 of the 8 died between 6pm and midnight
• Four were aged 4 to 7: a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old in 2022, a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old in 2024

The numbers in five years are small, so they cannot give a precise multiplier. A much larger study agrees with the direction, though: researchers writing in JAMA Pediatrics in 2019 used 42 years of the same NHTSA data (1975 to 2016) and found 608 pedestrian deaths on 42 Halloween evenings against 851 on 84 comparison evenings, a risk about 43% higher, with the largest increase, roughly tenfold, among children aged 4 to 8.

Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday

This year October 31 is a Saturday, so trick-or-treating, parties and evening traffic all share the same night. In the five years above, the one Saturday Halloween, 2020, recorded the most evening pedestrian deaths (21). One year is not proof of a weekend effect, but there is no reason to expect a quieter night.

The darker months are the real danger season

Halloween sits inside the three deadliest months of the year for pedestrians. From 2020 to 2024, FARS recorded:

• October: 3,686 pedestrian deaths, the highest of any month
• December: 3,668
• November: 3,649
• June: 2,445, the lowest

The single calendar dates with the most pedestrian deaths over those five years were January 1 (157), November 6 (149), December 10 (147), October 29 (145) and October 30 (144). October 31 itself ranked 51st of 366 dates (119). Darker evenings matter more than any one holiday: when US clocks go back on Sunday, November 1, 2026, the evening rush moves into darkness for everyone. For the hour-by-hour pattern see what time of day most road accidents happen.

How to make trick-or-treating safer

For parents: - Walk with children under about 10; younger children cannot judge the speed of a car reliably. - Put reflective tape or a light on costumes and bags, and choose costumes that do not block vision. - Cross at corners and crossings, and never from between parked cars. - Agree on a route on streets with sidewalks and lighting, and set a time to be home.

For drivers: - Slow right down in residential streets between 5pm and 10pm on October 31. - Expect children to appear from between parked cars and to cross mid-block. - Take extra care pulling out of driveways and reversing. - Do not drink and drive; plan a ride home if you are going to a party. The legal limits are on the US drunk driving limit page.

How these numbers were counted

All US figures are from NHTSA's FARS annual files for 2020 to 2024, the census of crashes on US public roads in which someone died within 30 days (public domain). A pedestrian is a person on foot killed by a motor vehicle; ages and times are as recorded by police. The comparison evenings are October 24 and November 7 of each year, the same weekday as Halloween. The most recent year can still be revised by NHTSA. More US data: pedestrian deaths by state, teen crash deaths by state, car accident deaths by age and car accidents by state.