2026 Halloween Safety Tips for Texas Families

Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, which means no school for kids the next day, no early alarm, and no excuse to skip the full-size candy bars. While this end-of-October celebration is always a night of fun, spooky frights, and promises to be even more so this year, the last thing anyone wants is a scare that lands them in the hospital.

Whether your crew is trick-or-treating in Highland Park or showing off costumes in Deep Ellum, you deserve a night of all treats and no tricks. A few easy habits and best safety practices can keep it that way, from the first doorbell to the last candy trade at the kitchen table.

Make Your Little Monsters Easy to Spot

Visibility is the easiest Halloween safety win. A JAMA Pediatrics study of 42 years of NHTSA data found pedestrian death risk was 43% higher on Halloween evenings than on comparable nights. Children ages four to eight faced the highest risk. This makes sense when you consider that Halloween is one of the single biggest nights of the year for pedestrian traffic.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS) offers some helpful Halloween safety tips that start with visibility:

• Add reflective tape to darker costumes
• Carry glow sticks or flashlights
• Choose face paint over masks that block a child’s view.

Costume fit counts as safety gear, too. Hem anything that drags, keep long trailing fabric away from candles and jack-o’-lanterns, and pick soft, flexible props over pointy ones.

Young trick-or-treaters should always have adult supervision when out walking around. For teens, who might not need full adult supervision when heading out with friends, . The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) tells everyone on foot to put away phones and earbuds, make eye contact with drivers, and look left, right, then left again before crossing.

TxDPS also strongly recommends sticking to sidewalks or crosswalks for navigating streets. Cutting across a road mid-block or popping out between parked cars makes kids hard to see and hands the right of way to drivers. Under Texas Transportation Code § 552.005, anyone crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk must yield to vehicles.

Drivers still have to stop and yield for people in crosswalks, so crossing at corners keeps pedestrian right of way in Texas on your side. If you’re driving Saturday night, slow down in neighborhoods and don’t assume kids are watching for your car.

Plan Your Ride Before the Party Starts

If your Halloween plans include a drink or two, book your ride home before taking your first sip. According to NHTSA data, crashes involving a drunk driver from 2019 to 2024 killed 176 people on Halloween night, including 31 pedestrians. In 2023 alone, nearly half of all Halloween-night crash deaths were alcohol-related.

In 2025, crashes involving a driver under the influence of alcohol killed 906 people in Texas. TxDOT’s 2025 crash facts also show more of these crashes happened on Saturday than on any other day, adding extra importance to taking this seriously this year.

A sober plan is easy to make early. NHTSA suggests picking a designated driver or scheduling a rideshare or taxi before you start drinking. If you’re hosting, help guests book rides, offer a spot on the couch, or drive them home yourself if you’re sober. A small amount of effort ahead of time could save your life, or the lives of others on the road around you. Likewise, if you spot someone weaving erratically while driving through your neighborhood, get someone safe and call 911.

Give the Candy Haul a Quick Once-Over

For parents, checking your kids’ candy haul after their trick-or-treating is an important safety step. Look specifically for torn wrappers or tampered packaging. The FDA’s Halloween food safety tips say to toss anything that isn’t commercially wrapped and to check packages for discoloration, tiny pinholes, or tears. If something looks suspicious, err on the side of caution.

Turn it into a sorting party at the kitchen table. If you have very young kids, pull out gum, peanuts, hard candies, and small toys, and check labels for any allergens. If your child or one of their friends has a severe allergy to something like peanuts, responding quickly could save them from needing serious and immediate medical treatment.

In modern times, a new risk has emerged. A 2026 study of U.S. poison center calls counted 41,612 accidental recreational drug ingestions among children under 6 from 2000 to 2024. Cannabis products made up 84.7% of them, and 96.4% happened in a home.

Most of these cases are not intentional; they’re simply a situation where someone who kept a cannabis-based product in their home got it confused with the other candy and handed it out by accident. If adults in your house keep edibles, lock them up well away from the candy bowl.

Check Your Cords & Decorations Twice

A five-minute walk around your porch, lights, and cords before trick-or-treaters arrive heads off two common problems: falls and fires. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates emergency rooms treat about 3,200 Halloween-related injuries each year. About a quarter of them come from falls while decorating, tripping on costumes, or walking while trick-or-treating.

Decorations can also start fires. From 2020 to 2024, an average of 835 home fires a year began with decorations, according to the National Fire Protection Agency’s Halloween fire data. Nearly half started because a decoration sat too close to a heat source, such as a candle. If you plan on using a jack-o-lantern with a real candle light source, keep it away from flammable materials like dry brush, grass, or garden features.

Speaking of pumpkin carving, CPSC suggests leaving the knife work to adults while kids scoop out the seeds or draw the face with a marker.

Run through this quick list before the doorbell starts ringing:

• Check every light strand for cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires, and loose connections, and throw out damaged sets.
• Use only lights tested by a recognized safety lab, and follow each product’s label for indoor or outdoor use.
• Clear lawns, steps, and porches of obstacles, including extension cords stretched across walkways.
• Light jack-o’-lanterns with battery candles or glow sticks instead of real flames.
• Remind kids that outlets and cords powering decorations are off-limits.
• If a big inflatable or tall prop starts leaning, unplug it and steady it before guests arrive.

Happy Halloween from Our Team

Everyone at Angel Reyes & Associates hopes your Halloween brings great costumes, plenty of candy, and a quiet ride home. We’ve represented injured Texans for more than 30 years, and we’d much rather see you stay safe than ever need us.

If a careless or impaired driver hurts someone you love, we handle pedestrian accident cases and other crashes across Texas. You can reach our team 24/7 for a free consultation.

Happy Halloween from all of us!