Halloween Falls on a Saturday This Year — AAA's Warning for San Antonio's Trick-or-Treat Hours
With Halloween on a Saturday, AAA urges extra caution after dark: children are more than twice as likely to be struck and killed by a vehicle on Halloween, and the peak trick-or-treating hours are 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, and that is exactly the combination safety officials are warning about. AAA urged drivers and families on Thursday to take extra precautions, saying a Saturday Halloween mixes trick-or-treaters on neighborhood streets after dark with party traffic and people riding bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters — a potentially dangerous mix, in AAA's account of the weekend.
The numbers behind the warning are stark. Safe Kids Worldwide reports that children are more than twice as likely to be struck and killed by a vehicle on Halloween than on any other day of the year, AAA said, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 201 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes on Halloween night from 2020 through 2024. The popular trick-or-treating hours are between 5:30 and 9:30 p.m., putting children on neighborhood streets after dark at the same hours drivers are heading to and from Saturday plans.
AAA's guidance for families is practical: reflective tape, flashlights and glow sticks improve a costume's visibility, and children younger than 12 should have adult supervision. For drivers, the guidance is to slow down around pedestrians, avoid distractions and follow traffic laws. San Antonio families splitting the evening between neighborhoods and events will find the city's organized options — including the DoSeum's trick-or-treat night and Zoo Boo's final evening — in this station's Halloween weekend guide, published earlier this week.
