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YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · APRIL 2026
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-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,933 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
APRIL 2026
Total crashes in April 2026 saw a slight increase of 0.17% compared to April 2025, rising from 8,918 to 8,933. Despite this modest increase in overall incidents, total fatalities decreased by 11.11%, from 9 deaths in the prior period to 8 in the current period. This marks a notable improvement in the severity outcome of crashes year-over-year.
8,933
▲ 0.2%was 8,918
Total Crash Events
8
▼ -11.1%was 9
Persons Killed
2,034
▲ 2.3%was 1,989
Persons Injured
2,670
▲ 0.7%was 2,652
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. 10 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash incidents remained relatively stable year-over-year, with a minor increase of 15 crashes from 8,918 in April 2025 to 8,933 in April 2026. However, total fatalities decreased by 11.11%, from 9 to 8, indicating a positive trend in preventing fatal outcomes. Conversely, total injuries increased by 2.26%, rising from 1,989 to 2,034.
2,670
Hit-and-Run Crashes — April 2026
▲ 0.7% vs prior (2,652)
The number of hit-and-run crashes increased by 18, from 2,652 in April 2025 to 2,670 in April 2026. The hit-and-run rate also saw a slight increase, rising from 29.7% in the prior period to 29.9% in the current period, indicating an upward trend.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
4
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
2
Motorists Killed
1
Other Killed
219
Pedestrians Injured
131
Cyclists Injured
1,672
Motorists Injured
12
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes shifted from Wednesday in April 2025, with 1,583 incidents, to Thursday in April 2026, which recorded 1,545 crashes. The peak hour for crashes remained consistently at 3 p.m. in both periods, with 777 crashes in April 2025 and 781 in April 2026. Notably, crashes on Thursdays increased by 320, from 1,225 to 1,545, while crashes on Tuesdays decreased by 190, from 1,409 to 1,219.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate decreased slightly from 0.1% in April 2025 to 0.09% in April 2026, corresponding to a reduction from 9 to 8 fatal crash events. Serious injury crashes (severity A) decreased from 114 to 111, while minor injury crashes (severity B) increased from 703 to 750. Possible injury crashes (severity C) saw a decrease from 588 to 537.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top five contributing factors maintained their ranking between the two periods, with 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way' and 'Following Too Closely' remaining the most frequent. 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way' decreased by 26 crashes (from 1,044 to 1,018), and 'Following Too Closely' decreased by 23 crashes (from 818 to 795). 'Improper Turning/No Signal' showed a notable increase of 45 crashes, rising from 276 to 321, and consequently moved up in ranking from eighth to sixth most common factor.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased by 348, from 6,976 in April 2025 to 6,628 in April 2026. Conversely, crashes during rain increased by 189, from 784 to 973. Similarly, crashes on dry road surfaces decreased by 345 (from 6,589 to 6,244), while those on wet road surfaces increased by 261 (from 1,006 to 1,267).
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes remained stable, increasing by 12 from 18,186 to 18,198. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved, with its count increasing by 87 (from 2,205 to 2,292), while Chevrolet dropped from second to third place with a decrease of 113 vehicles (from 1,932 to 1,819). Among persons involved, the 0-15 age group saw an increase of 57 persons (from 602 to 659), and the 26-34 age group increased by 52 persons (from 3,271 to 3,323).
Top Vehicle Makes (18,198 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Vehicle unit records
5,793 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 (19,355 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 20 mph zones increased from 396 to 414, with one fatal crash recorded in the current period compared to none in the prior period. In 30 mph zones, crashes slightly increased from 6,723 to 6,734, while fatalities decreased from 6 to 5. Crashes in 35 mph zones decreased from 410 to 382, with the number of fatal crashes remaining at 2 in both periods.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 414 (0.242%) · 30 mph: 5 of 6,734 (0.074%) · 35 mph: 2 of 382 (0.524%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · 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: 2026-04-01 through 2026-04-30
- Report generated: September 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-04-01 through 2026-04-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,933
- Total persons involved: 19,724
- Total vehicles involved: 18,198
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: April 2026." Published September 1, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30. Data source: Chicago Traffic Crashes, Socrata Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/illinois/chicago/april-2026-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: 2026-04-01 – 2026-04-30
Generated: September 1, 2026 · All rights reserved
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