Halloween night ended in tragedy on the roads of Austin, Texas, where two pedestrians were killed and two other people were badly injured in three separate crashes in the early hours of Sunday, November 1, 2026. The crashes happened within about two hours of each other on and near Interstate 35, the main north-south highway that runs through the heart of the city, according to Austin Police Department information reported by local outlets KXAN and KVUE and summarised by Particle News.

Source: KXAN Austin

The first fatal crash was reported at about 12:20 a.m. on Sunday. A pedestrian was struck on northbound Interstate 35 near the U.S. Highway 183 exit in Austin and was pronounced dead after emergency crews arrived at the scene. Police have not released the pedestrian's name, age or any detail about the vehicle involved in this crash, and they have not said why the pedestrian was on the interstate.

Shortly before 1 a.m., officers were called to a second, separate crash in the 4100 block of South 1st Street in South Austin. That collision was a hit-and-run: a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle that left the scene, and the injured pedestrian was taken to hospital, where they later died. The Austin Police Department's Vehicular Homicide Unit is leading this investigation.

Source: Particle News / Austin Police Department

Investigators believe a dark-coloured sedan was involved in the South 1st Street hit-and-run, and police have asked anyone who saw the car, or who has information about the crash, to come forward. As of the latest reports, no arrest had been announced in the hit-and-run case and the sedan had not been publicly located.

A third crash on I-35 near downtown

At about 2:33 a.m., a third crash happened on southbound Interstate 35 near downtown Austin. Two adults were ejected from a vehicle in that collision. Both were taken to Dell Seton Medical Center, and one of them remained in critical, life-threatening condition in the latest reports. Emergency crews briefly closed southbound I-35 lanes while they cleared the scene.

Taken together, KXAN reported the overnight toll as two people dead and two others injured across three separate crashes, and reported that one person was arrested in connection with the overnight crashes. Police had not publicly tied that arrest to one specific crash in the reports available on Sunday, and the names of everyone involved were being withheld while families were notified. Police have not said the three crashes were connected, and no cause has been announced for any of them.

A crowded Halloween night, and the clocks went back

The crashes came on one of the busiest nights of the year in downtown Austin. Before the weekend, the Austin Police Department had estimated that up to 100,000 people could descend on the downtown entertainment areas for Halloween, according to KXAN. The fatal crashes also happened on the morning daylight saving time ended in the United States, when clocks went back one hour at 2 a.m., making the overnight hours longer and, for drivers and pedestrians, more tiring and confusing.

Interstate 35 through Austin is one of the busiest freight and trucking corridors in Texas, carrying long-haul trucks between the Mexican border at Laredo, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and points north — a route many Punjabi truckers in the United States drive regularly. The Texas Department of Transportation had already warned of varying nightly lane closures on I-35 between State Highway 71 (Ben White Boulevard) and State Highway 45 Southeast from Sunday, November 1 through Thursday, November 5, between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., with the interstate reduced to one lane in some stretches. Drivers crossing Austin overnight this week should expect delays and plan alternate routes where possible.

Austin has been trying for years to cut its road deaths under its Vision Zero programme. KXAN's reporting on the programme has noted that, on average, about 500 people a year are seriously hurt or killed in crashes in Austin — a backdrop that makes a night with two pedestrian deaths and a life-threatening ejection crash especially grim for the city.