ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · 2020
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/2020-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
92,096 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
2020
In 2020, Chicago recorded 92,096 total traffic crashes, a 21.8% decrease from the 117,764 crashes in 2019. Despite the significant drop in overall collisions, the most notable year-over-year shift was a 33% increase in total fatalities, which rose from 115 in 2019 to 153 in 2020. This indicates that while fewer crashes occurred, their average severity increased.
92,096
▼ -21.8%was 117,764
Total Crash Events
153
▲ 33.0%was 115
Persons Killed
19,770
▼ -12.4%was 22,581
Persons Injured
30,498
▼ -4.6%was 31,955
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (153) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (134) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 236 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend in traffic incidents shows a substantial year-over-year decrease, with total crashes falling by 21.8% from 117,764 in 2019 to 92,096 in 2020. However, this decline did not extend to the most severe outcomes. While total injuries decreased by a smaller margin of 12.5% (from 22,581 to 19,770), total fatalities rose by 33%, from 115 to 153.
30,498
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2020
▼ -4.6% vs prior (31,955)
While the absolute number of hit-and-run incidents decreased by 4.6%, from 31,955 in 2019 to 30,498 in 2020, the hit-and-run rate as a proportion of all crashes increased significantly. In 2019, hit-and-runs constituted 27.1% of all crashes; this figure rose to 33.1% in 2020. This indicates that hit-and-run incidents became a more prevalent feature of the crashes that did occur.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
38
Pedestrians Killed
6
Cyclists Killed
109
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
2,008
Pedestrians Injured
994
Cyclists Injured
16,747
Motorists Injured
21
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes showed both consistency and significant change. The peak day for crashes remained Friday and the peak hour remained 4 PM in both 2020 and 2019. However, the daily crash distribution flattened considerably in 2020, with the traditional morning commute peak (7 AM - 9 AM) seeing a dramatic reduction in crash volume compared to the prior year.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Crash severity increased notably from 2019 to 2020. The number of fatal crashes rose from 102 to 134, and the fatal crash rate increased from 0.09% to 0.15% of all crashes. The proportion of collisions resulting in any level of injury also grew, from 13.8% of all crashes in 2019 to 15.3% in 2020, driven by a proportional increase in serious injury crashes from 1.7% to 2.1%.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 134 fatal crash events resulted in 153 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top two primary contributing factors remained consistent, with "Failing to Yield Right-of-Way" and "Following Too Closely" leading in both periods, although the count of crashes attributed to these factors decreased by 25% and 32.5% respectively. The rankings shifted below the top two, with "Failing to Reduce Speed to Avoid Crash" replacing "Improper Overtaking/Passing" as the third most cited factor in 2020. The share of total crashes for the top factor, "Failing to Yield," remained relatively stable, moving from an 11.0% share in 2019 to a 10.5% share in 2020.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
A larger proportion of crashes in 2020 occurred under favorable conditions compared to 2019. Crashes in clear weather increased as a share of the total from 77.8% to 80.6%, and crashes on dry road surfaces grew from 73.1% to 77.3%. In terms of lighting, the proportion of crashes occurring during daylight hours decreased from 65.6% in 2019 to 62.6% in 2020, while the share of crashes happening in darkness on lighted roads increased from 21.2% to 23.8%.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes changed between periods. Chevrolet was the most frequent make in both years, though its count fell from 26,796 to 22,906. In 2020, Ford and Nissan moved into the second and third positions, respectively. The demographic distribution of persons involved in crashes remained largely stable year-over-year, with the 26-34 age group consistently comprising the largest segment at approximately 16.4% of all individuals.
Top Vehicle Makes (189,607 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
59,724 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 (196,674 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed zone accounted for the vast majority of crashes in both periods, representing 73.5% of crashes in 2019 and 72.7% in 2020. While the total number of crashes in this zone decreased, the number of fatalities increased significantly from 68 to 103. This caused the fatality rate for crashes within 30 mph zones to nearly double, rising from 0.079% in 2019 to 0.154% in 2020.
Fatal crashes by zone: 10 mph: 2 of 2,493 (0.08%) · 20 mph: 2 of 3,920 (0.051%) · 25 mph: 11 of 6,076 (0.181%) · 30 mph: 103 of 66,949 (0.154%) · 35 mph: 10 of 6,841 (0.146%) · 40 mph: 3 of 871 (0.344%) · 45 mph: 3 of 568 (0.528%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · 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: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31 (366 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 92,096
- Total persons involved: 199,994
- Total vehicles involved: 189,607
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/2020-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: 2020-01-01 – 2020-12-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved