ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · APRIL 2023
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-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,012 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
APRIL 2023
In April 2023, Chicago experienced 9,012 total crashes, an increase of 5.61% from 8,533 crashes in April 2022. Despite this rise in overall incidents, total fatalities decreased significantly by 33.33%, from 12 to 8. Total injuries, however, saw an increase of 9.56% year-over-year.
9,012
▲ 5.6%was 8,533
Total Crash Events
8
▼ -33.3%was 12
Persons Killed
1,856
▲ 9.6%was 1,694
Persons Injured
2,919
▲ 2.3%was 2,853
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (8) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (8) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 21 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Chicago are trending upwards year-over-year, with total crashes increasing by 5.61% from 8,533 to 9,012. This increase in total crashes was accompanied by a rise in total injuries by 9.56%, from 1,694 to 1,856. Conversely, total fatalities decreased by 33.33%.
2,919
Hit-and-Run Crashes — April 2023
▲ 2.3% vs prior (2,853)
The total count of hit-and-run crashes increased by 66, rising from 2,853 in April 2022 to 2,919 in April 2023. Despite this increase in count, the hit-and-run rate relative to total crashes decreased by 1 percentage point, from 33.4% to 32.4%. This indicates that while the number of hit-and-run incidents rose, they constitute a slightly smaller proportion of all crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
6
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
203
Pedestrians Injured
80
Cyclists Injured
1,570
Motorists Injured
3
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes remained Saturday in both periods, though the count decreased from 1,613 in April 2022 to 1,467 in April 2023. The peak crash hour shifted from 4 PM in April 2022 (635 crashes) to 3 PM in April 2023 (751 crashes). Overall, crash counts on most days of the week increased, except for Saturday and Friday, which saw decreases.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes decreased by 27.27%, from 11 in April 2022 to 8 in April 2023, resulting in a lower fatal crash rate of 0.09% compared to 0.13% previously. While the proportion of serious injury crashes increased slightly from 1.6% to 1.8%, minor injury crashes remained stable at approximately 8.5% of all incidents. Total injuries rose by 9.56% year-over-year, from 1,694 to 1,856.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY', increased by 50 crashes (5.09% count increase) from 982 to 1,032. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' also saw a significant count increase of 76 crashes (11.18%), rising from 680 to 756. 'DRIVING SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE' increased by 56 crashes (17.67% count increase), moving from the fifth to the fourth most frequent factor, while 'FAILING TO REDUCE SPEED TO AVOID CRASH' decreased by 28 crashes (-7.73% count decrease), shifting from the fourth to the fifth position.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in 'CLEAR' weather conditions increased from 70.50% of total crashes in April 2022 to 79.15% in April 2023. Conversely, crashes during 'RAIN' decreased significantly from 15.82% to 7.40% of total crashes. Similarly, crashes on 'WET' road surfaces dropped from 20.51% to 10.72% of total crashes, indicating a shift towards crashes in more favorable environmental conditions.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Toyota became the most frequently involved vehicle make in crashes, increasing its count by 255 (14.17%) from 1,800 to 2,055, surpassing Chevrolet which increased by 113 (5.85%). The 26-34 age group saw the largest absolute increase in persons involved, rising by 206 (6.69%) from 3,080 to 3,286. All other adult age groups also showed increases in persons involved, with the 55-64 age group experiencing a 10.24% increase.
Top Vehicle Makes (18,443 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Vehicle unit records
6,223 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 (19,332 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Fatalities at 30 mph speed zones saw a substantial decrease, dropping from 10 in April 2022 to 4 in April 2023, and the fatal rate in this zone decreased from 0.159% to 0.06%. Crashes in 25 mph zones increased by 49, from 519 to 568, and the fatal rate in this zone rose from 0.193% to 0.352%. A new fatal crash occurred in a 20 mph zone in April 2023, where there were none in the prior period.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 428 (0.234%) · 25 mph: 2 of 568 (0.352%) · 30 mph: 4 of 6,693 (0.06%) · 40 mph: 1 of 89 (1.124%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-04-01 to 2023-04-30 · 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: 2023-04-01 through 2023-04-30
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-04-01 through 2023-04-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,012
- Total persons involved: 19,796
- Total vehicles involved: 18,443
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-2023-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: 2023-04-01 – 2023-04-30
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved