With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, a new analysis ranks four Bay Area cities among California's 25 most dangerous for the holiday season and seven among the safest, particularly when it comes to traffic safety.
The analysis by the Maison Law, a California personal injury and accident law firm, compared 336 California cities with populations of at least 10,000, using five criteria: October crashes, alcohol-involved crashes, pedestrian-involved crashes, longer-term crash rates and reported October crime.
"We wanted to give families something useful as they plan their Halloween celebrations," Andrea Nadeau, on behalf of Maison Law, told Patch. "But a city's position is a starting point for understanding local conditions, and safety can vary from one neighborhood to another. These at least give you an idea of what types of risks you can be extra prepared for."
In the Bay Area, Emeryville had the highest October reported crime rate among the cities included in the study, while the overall rankings reflected a combination of traffic and crime data.
"What stood out in the Bay Area was the range of results," Nadeau told Patch."Emeryville and Piedmont, for example, both placed in the Top 10, but at opposite ends of the rankings."
The report cautioned that its scores measure relative safety conditions across the broader Halloween season and year-round patterns, not the likelihood of being hurt on Halloween night.
Most dangerous:
Safest:
The report found that Clayton had no fatal or injury crashes recorded in the study's three seasonal crash windows, though its overall score also included long-term crash rates and October crime data.
Crash data came from UC Berkeley's Transportation Injury Mapping System, using records from the California Highway Patrol, while crime data came from the California Department of Justice.
The study excluded cities with missing or inconsistent data, and it noted that 2025 crash records were still provisional. The report also stressed that rankings do not establish which individual neighborhoods are safest for trick-or-treating.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advises drivers to watch for children who may unexpectedly enter roadways and to slow down in residential areas. Extra caution is especially important during evening hours, when visibility is reduced and children may move unpredictably between homes and parked cars, officials said.
It also recommends that partygoers plan for a sober ride before drinking.
Families and pedestrians should use crosswalks, obey traffic signals and stay alert to vehicles approaching from all directions.
Parents and caregivers can help younger trick-or-treaters by choosing familiar routes, accompanying them and reminding them to use crosswalks and obey pedestrian signals, authorities said.
Families can also establish a meeting point and make sure children know how to contact a trusted adult if they become separated.
The full study and methodology are available at Maison Law's Halloween safety report.
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