ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · APRIL 2022
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/april-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,533 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
APRIL 2022
In April 2022, Chicago experienced 8533 total crashes, an increase of 4.46% from the 8169 crashes recorded in April 2021. The most significant year-over-year shift was a 100% increase in total fatalities, rising from 6 to 12.
8,533
▲ 4.5%was 8,169
Total Crash Events
12
▲ 100.0%was 6
Persons Killed
1,694
▼ -5.9%was 1,800
Persons Injured
2,853
▼ -0.6%was 2,871
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (12) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (11) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 19 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, total crashes in April 2022 increased by 4.46% compared to April 2021, rising from 8169 to 8533 incidents. Total fatalities doubled from 6 to 12, indicating a worsening outcome despite a decrease in total injuries by 5.89%, from 1800 to 1694.
2,853
Hit-and-Run Crashes — April 2022
▼ -0.6% vs prior (2,871)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased slightly from 2871 in April 2021 to 2853 in April 2022. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate also saw a decrease, moving from 35.1% to 33.4%.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
11
Motorists Killed
150
Pedestrians Injured
77
Cyclists Injured
1,467
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
In April 2022, Saturday became the peak day for crashes with 1613 incidents, shifting from Friday which was the peak day in April 2021 with 1480 crashes. The peak hour remained 4p in both periods, though the count of crashes at this hour decreased from 674 in April 2021 to 635 in April 2022.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Total fatalities doubled from 6 in April 2021 to 12 in April 2022, while fatal crashes increased from 6 to 11. Despite this, the fatal crash rate remained stable at 0.1% in both periods. Total injuries decreased by 5.89%, from 1800 to 1694.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 11 fatal crash events resulted in 12 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY', increased by 21.6% in count, from 807 in April 2021 to 982 in April 2022. 'IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING' also saw a notable increase of 24.7% in count, rising from 384 to 479, becoming the third most frequent factor in the current period. In contrast, 'FAILING TO REDUCE SPEED TO AVOID CRASH' decreased by 8.6% in count, from 396 to 362.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in rainy conditions more than doubled, increasing by 120% from 614 in April 2021 to 1350 in April 2022, aligning with a 120.1% increase in crashes on wet road surfaces. Conversely, crashes in clear weather decreased by 843, from 6859 to 6016. Crashes occurring during 'DARKNESS, LIGHTED ROAD' conditions increased by 9.7%, from 1648 to 1808.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 3.84%, from 16663 in April 2021 to 17303 in April 2022. Chevrolet remained the most common vehicle make, despite a decrease in its crash count from 2052 to 1931. Toyota saw an increase from 1568 to 1800 crashes, moving it to the second rank, while Ford also increased from 1603 to 1708 crashes.
Top Vehicle Makes (17,303 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Vehicle unit records
5,710 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 (18,194 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed zone increased from 5890 in April 2021 to 6302 in April 2022, with fatalities in this zone doubling from 5 to 10. In the 25 mph zone, crashes decreased from 556 to 519, but a fatality was recorded in April 2022 (1 fatality) where none were present in April 2021.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 519 (0.193%) · 30 mph: 10 of 6,302 (0.159%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · 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: 2022-04-01 through 2022-04-30
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-04-01 through 2022-04-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,533
- Total persons involved: 18,480
- Total vehicles involved: 17,303
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/april-2022-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: 2022-04-01 – 2022-04-30
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved