ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · 2018
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
Authentication: None required. Public endpoint.
GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/illinois/chicago/2018-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
118,952 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
2018
In 2018, Chicago recorded 118,952 total traffic crashes, a 42.0% increase from the 83,786 crashes reported in 2017. This period also saw a significant rise in harmful outcomes, with total fatalities increasing by 47.7% from 88 to 130 and total injuries climbing by 72.2% from 13,031 to 22,442. The most notable year-over-year shift was the substantial increase in the overall volume of crashes and the associated rise in injuries.
118,952
▲ 42.0%was 83,786
Total Crash Events
130
▲ 47.7%was 88
Persons Killed
22,442
▲ 72.2%was 13,031
Persons Injured
31,590
▲ 42.6%was 22,160
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (130) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (114) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 224 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data from Chicago indicates a sharply rising trend in traffic incidents year-over-year. Total crashes increased by 42.0% from 83,786 in 2017 to 118,952 in 2018. This upward trend was also reflected in crash outcomes, with a 47.7% increase in fatalities and a 72.2% increase in injuries during the same period.
31,590
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2018
▲ 42.6% vs prior (22,160)
The number of hit-and-run crashes increased significantly, rising by 42.6% from 22,160 in 2017 to 31,590 in 2018. However, the hit-and-run rate as a percentage of total crashes remained relatively stable. The rate increased slightly from 26.4% in 2017 to 26.6% in 2018, indicating that the growth in hit-and-run incidents was proportional to the overall increase in total crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
31
Pedestrians Killed
5
Cyclists Killed
91
Motorists Killed
3
Other Killed
3,000
Pedestrians Injured
1,322
Cyclists Injured
18,112
Motorists Injured
8
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes remained consistent between 2017 and 2018, despite a significant increase in overall volume. Friday continued to be the peak day for crashes in both years, with incidents rising from 13,769 to 19,031. Similarly, the 4 p.m. hour remained the peak time for collisions, increasing from 6,485 crashes in 2017 to 8,933 in 2018.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While the rate of fatal crashes remained stable at 0.1% of all incidents in both 2017 and 2018, the proportion of crashes resulting in injuries increased. In 2018, 13.8% of crashes involved an injury (Serious, Minor, or Possible), up from 11.4% in 2017. Correspondingly, the share of crashes resulting in 'No Injury' decreased from 88.3% in 2017 to 85.9% in 2018.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 114 fatal crash events resulted in 130 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors saw a shift in ranking between the two periods. In 2018, 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way' became the top factor with 14,089 crashes, a 43.6% increase in count from 9,810 in 2017 when it was the second-ranked cause. 'Following Too Closely,' the top factor in 2017 with 9,955 crashes, dropped to second place in 2018 with 12,674 crashes, representing a 27.3% increase in count. While the counts for both factors rose, the share of total crashes attributed to 'Following Too Closely' decreased from a 11.9% share in 2017 to a 10.7% share in 2018.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The majority of crashes in both years occurred in clear weather and daylight, but there were shifts in the proportions of crashes under adverse conditions. The share of crashes happening on dry road surfaces decreased from 77.8% in 2017 to 74.5% in 2018. Concurrently, the proportion of crashes occurring in snow conditions increased from 2.4% of all crashes in 2017 to 3.9% in 2018.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes—Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford—remained consistent in ranking from 2017 to 2018, with the number of involvements for each make increasing substantially. The demographic profile of persons involved in crashes also showed stability, with the 26-34 age group representing the largest cohort in both years. This group's share of total persons involved remained steady, accounting for 15.8% in 2017 and 16.2% in 2018.
Top Vehicle Makes (241,887 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
74,837 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart. Age=0 in Chicago records is a sentinel for unknown/unrecorded age (not infants) and is grouped with nulls.
Sex Distribution (262,111 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed zone was the location for the vast majority of crashes in both periods, with incidents in this zone increasing from 62,127 in 2017 to 88,081 in 2018. The rate of fatal crashes within the 30 mph zone saw a slight increase from 0.090% to 0.099% year-over-year. In contrast, while the number of crashes in the 35 mph zone also rose, the fatal crash rate within that zone decreased from 0.193% in 2017 to 0.147% in 2018.
Fatal crashes by zone: 15 mph: 2 of 3,813 (0.052%) · 20 mph: 2 of 4,542 (0.044%) · 25 mph: 7 of 7,164 (0.098%) · 30 mph: 87 of 88,081 (0.099%) · 35 mph: 12 of 8,163 (0.147%) · 40 mph: 1 of 1,099 (0.091%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Posted speed limit at crash location
Data Sources & Methodology
Primary Data Source
All crash data in this report is sourced from Chicago Traffic Crashes, accessed programmatically via the Socrata Open Data API (SODA). This dataset contains official police-reported motor vehicle traffic crash records maintained by the reporting jurisdiction's law enforcement agency. Records are published to the open data portal by the municipality and are subject to the portal's terms of use.
Data Retrieval
- Access method: Socrata Open Data API (SoQL queries)
- Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
- Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
- Date filter applied: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 118,952
- Total persons involved: 265,716
- Total vehicles involved: 241,887
Analytical Methodology
- Severity classification: Uses the KABCO injury scale (K=Fatal, A=Incapacitating injury, B=Non-incapacitating injury, C=Possible injury, O=No injury/property damage only), the standard classification in U.S. Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). Severity is assigned per crash event based on the most severe injury in that crash. A single fatal crash (K) may involve multiple fatalities; therefore the "Persons Killed" count in the headline KPIs may differ from the "Fatal" crash count in the severity breakdown.
- Contributing factors: Reflect the officer-determined primary contributory cause recorded at the time of the crash report. These are preliminary determinations and may not reflect final investigation findings.
- Hit-and-run classification: Based on the hit-and-run indicator field in the official crash report, as determined by the responding officer at the scene.
- Temporal analysis: Day-of-week and hour-of-day distributions are computed from the crash date/time timestamp in each record.
- Demographics: Age and sex distributions are drawn from person-level records linked to each crash event. A single crash may involve multiple persons.
- Vehicle data: Make information is drawn from vehicle unit records linked to each crash event.
- AI commentary: Narrative sections are generated by Google Gemini (large language model) based on the structured data. Commentary is descriptive, not predictive, and should not be interpreted as expert opinion.
Limitations & Disclaimers
- Only crashes reported to and documented by law enforcement are included. Minor incidents, unreported crashes, and near-misses are not captured in this dataset.
- Data reflects conditions at the time of the initial police report and may be subject to subsequent corrections, reclassifications, or supplements by the reporting agency.
- Open data portal records may experience a publication lag - recently occurring crashes may not yet appear in the dataset at the time of report generation.
- AI-generated commentary is produced by a large language model and is intended to highlight patterns in the data. It does not constitute legal, medical, or professional analysis.
- Percentages are calculated from reported data and are subject to rounding.
Non-Affiliation Disclosure
This report is produced independently by ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with any law enforcement agency, municipal government, state department of transportation, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data is sourced from publicly available government open data portals.
Data License
The underlying crash data is provided under the municipality's Open Data Terms of Use and is made available to the public for unrestricted use. This analysis and report is © 2026 Injuria.ai and may be cited with attribution using the suggested citation below.
Corrections & Feedback
If you believe any data in this report is inaccurate or have questions about our methodology, please contact: data@injuria.ai. We are committed to accuracy and will issue corrections promptly.
Suggested Citation
ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). "Chicago, IL Crash Intelligence Report." Published June 1, 2026. Data source: Chicago Traffic Crashes, Socrata Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/illinois/chicago/2018-annual-report
About the Publisher
ThatCarHitMe.com is a crash data intelligence platform developed by Injuria.ai, a legal technology company specializing in traffic safety analytics. We aggregate and analyze publicly available government crash data to produce structured intelligence reports for communities, researchers, journalists, and legal professionals. Our reports combine programmatic data retrieval from official open data portals with AI-assisted narrative analysis.
Questions about this report's data or methodology: data@injuria.ai
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata
Period: 2018-01-01 – 2018-12-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved