ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · 2024
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/2024-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
112,055 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
2024
In 2024, Chicago recorded 112,055 total traffic crashes, a 1.2% increase from the 110,755 crashes reported in 2023. While total crashes and resulting injuries rose, the most notable year-over-year shift was a significant 19.1% decrease in total fatalities, which fell from 152 to 123.
112,055
▲ 1.2%was 110,755
Total Crash Events
123
▼ -19.1%was 152
Persons Killed
25,582
▲ 8.1%was 23,668
Persons Injured
34,375
▼ -1.5%was 34,908
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (123) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (111) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 251 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend shows a 1.2% increase in total crashes and an 8.1% increase in total injuries from 2023 to 2024. In contrast, total fatalities demonstrated a significant downward trend, decreasing by 19.1% over the same period, indicating a drop in the severity of the deadliest collisions.
34,375
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2024
▼ -1.5% vs prior (34,908)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased from 34,908 in 2023 to 34,375 in 2024. This decline is also reflected in the hit-and-run rate, which fell from 31.5% of all crashes in the prior year to 30.7% in the current year. The data indicates a slight downward trend in both the absolute count and the proportional rate of hit-and-run incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
34
Pedestrians Killed
3
Cyclists Killed
86
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
2,901
Pedestrians Injured
1,677
Cyclists Injured
20,889
Motorists Injured
115
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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 highly consistent year-over-year. The peak day for crashes was Friday in both 2024 (17,702 crashes) and 2023 (17,776 crashes), and the peak hour for collisions was 3 PM in both periods. The daily and hourly distributions of crashes saw no significant shifts between the two years.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The overall severity of crashes decreased from 2023 to 2024. The fatal crash rate fell from 0.13% to 0.10%, and the proportion of crashes involving serious injuries also declined from 1.7% to 1.5%. Conversely, the share of crashes resulting in minor injuries increased from 8.6% to 8.9%, and those with possible injuries rose from 4.7% to 6.0%.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 111 fatal crash events resulted in 123 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The primary contributing factors for crashes were consistent, with 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way' and 'Following Too Closely' remaining the top two causes in both years. The count for 'Failing to Yield' increased by 4.6% from 12,493 to 13,066, while 'Following Too Closely' grew by 5.1% from 9,302 to 9,776. The top three factors maintained their rank, though 'Failing to Reduce Speed to Avoid Crash' moved up to the fourth position in 2024.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
A slightly higher proportion of crashes in 2024 occurred under favorable conditions compared to 2023. Crashes in 'Daylight' increased their share from 62.2% to 63.4% of all incidents. Similarly, the proportion of crashes on 'Dry' road surfaces rose from 71.4% to 72.7%, and those in 'Clear' weather increased from 75.8% to 78.3%, suggesting a relative decrease in crashes during adverse conditions.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top vehicle makes involved in crashes remained stable, with Toyota, Chevrolet, and Ford holding the top three spots in both years. Toyota-involved incidents increased by 4.6%, while Chevrolet-involved incidents decreased by 1.9%. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes also showed little change, with the 26-34 age group consistently representing the largest cohort.
Top Vehicle Makes (228,314 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
71,769 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 (241,756 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed zone continued to be where the vast majority of crashes occurred, with total incidents in this zone increasing by 1.4% from 82,085 to 83,197. However, fatal crashes within this specific zone decreased from 100 to 82. In zones with speed limits of 40 mph or higher, total crashes fell from 2,071 to 1,963, but the number of fatal crashes in these higher-speed areas increased from 9 to 13.
Fatal crashes by zone: 10 mph: 2 of 2,736 (0.073%) · 20 mph: 2 of 4,846 (0.041%) · 25 mph: 6 of 7,967 (0.075%) · 30 mph: 82 of 83,197 (0.099%) · 35 mph: 6 of 6,619 (0.091%) · 40 mph: 7 of 1,088 (0.643%) · 45 mph: 5 of 709 (0.705%) · 55 mph: 1 of 108 (0.926%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31 (366 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 112,055
- Total persons involved: 246,697
- Total vehicles involved: 228,314
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/2024-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: 2024-01-01 – 2024-12-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved