ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · AUGUST 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/august-2020-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,161 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
AUGUST 2020
Chicago experienced a decrease in total crashes from 9,941 in August 2019 to 9,161 in August 2020, representing a 7.85% reduction. Despite this overall decline, hit-and-run crashes increased by 16.44%, rising from 2,719 to 3,166 incidents. Total fatalities saw a notable decrease of 31.25%, falling from 16 to 11.
9,161
▼ -7.8%was 9,941
Total Crash Events
11
▼ -31.3%was 16
Persons Killed
2,104
▼ -3.8%was 2,186
Persons Injured
3,166
▲ 16.4%was 2,719
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (11) 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. 22 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash data for Chicago indicates a downward trend year-over-year, with total crashes decreasing by 7.85% from 9,941 to 9,161. Fatalities also saw a significant reduction, dropping by 31.25% from 16 to 11. Total injuries decreased by 3.75%, from 2,186 to 2,104.
3,166
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2020
▲ 16.4% vs prior (2,719)
Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, rising by 447 incidents from 2,719 in August 2019 to 3,166 in August 2020. This represents a 16.44% increase in the count of hit-and-run crashes. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate also trended upwards, increasing from 27.4% to 34.6% of all crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
4
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
6
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
161
Pedestrians Injured
185
Cyclists Injured
1,753
Motorists Injured
5
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
Saturday became the peak crash day in August 2020 with 1,635 crashes, shifting from Friday which had 1,777 crashes in August 2019. The peak hour for crashes also shifted, moving from 4 p.m. with 785 crashes in August 2019 to 5 p.m. with 693 crashes in August 2020. This indicates a shift in the timing of peak crash activity.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate remained consistent at 0.1% of total crashes in both periods, although the count of fatal crashes decreased from 13 to 11. Serious injury crashes (severity A) increased in proportion from 1.8% to 2.1% of total crashes, with counts rising from 182 to 189. Minor injury crashes (severity B) also saw a proportional increase from 8.8% to 10.3%, with counts rising from 874 to 948, while possible injury crashes (severity C) decreased in count from 448 to 391.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factors saw shifts in both counts and rankings year-over-year. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' decreased by 322 crashes, from 1,088 to 766, moving from the top factor in August 2019 to the second in August 2020. Conversely, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' decreased by 120 crashes, from 1,037 to 917, becoming the leading factor in August 2020. 'FAILING TO REDUCE SPEED TO AVOID CRASH' also decreased by 109 crashes, from 554 to 445.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The proportion of crashes occurring in clear weather conditions remained dominant, though the count decreased from 8,697 to 8,337. Crashes during rainy weather significantly decreased by 309, from 667 to 358. Similarly, crashes on dry road surfaces decreased from 8,466 to 8,070, and crashes on wet surfaces decreased by 353, from 825 to 472.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of persons involved in crashes decreased from 22,556 to 19,765 year-over-year. Among age groups, persons aged 26-34 saw the largest decrease in involvement, falling by 535 individuals from 3,730 to 3,195, while the 16-20 age group saw an increase of 108 persons involved. Chevrolet remained the most frequently involved vehicle make, increasing slightly from 2,256 to 2,296 vehicles, while Ford involvement decreased by 124, from 1,973 to 1,849.
Top Vehicle Makes (18,808 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
5,902 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 (19,448 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The majority of crashes continued to occur in 30 mph speed zones, though the count decreased by 517 crashes, from 7,233 to 6,716, and fatal crashes in these zones decreased from 11 to 7. Crashes in 45 mph zones decreased from 78 to 45, yet fatal crashes within these zones increased from 1 to 3. Crashes in 25 mph zones decreased from 672 to 614, but fatal crashes in these zones increased from 0 to 1.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 614 (0.163%) · 30 mph: 7 of 6,716 (0.104%) · 45 mph: 3 of 45 (6.667%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · 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: 2020-08-01 through 2020-08-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-08-01 through 2020-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,161
- Total persons involved: 19,765
- Total vehicles involved: 18,808
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/august-2020-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: 2020-08-01 – 2020-08-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved