ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · AUGUST 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/august-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,233 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
AUGUST 2022
Total crashes in Chicago decreased by 7.56% year-over-year, falling from 9989 in August 2021 to 9233 in August 2022. The most significant year-over-year shift was a 45.45% reduction in total fatalities, which decreased from 22 to 12.
9,233
▼ -7.6%was 9,989
Total Crash Events
12
▼ -45.5%was 22
Persons Killed
1,918
▼ -7.2%was 2,066
Persons Injured
3,027
▼ -11.3%was 3,414
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (12) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (10) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 28 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash data indicates a downward trend year-over-year, with total crashes decreasing from 9989 in August 2021 to 9233 in August 2022. This represents a reduction of 756 crashes, or 7.56%, in the current period compared to the prior period.
3,027
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2022
▼ -11.3% vs prior (3,414)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 3414 in the prior period to 3027 in the current period, a reduction of 387 incidents. The hit-and-run rate also saw a decrease, moving from 34.2% to 32.8% year-over-year.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
7
Pedestrians Killed
2
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
219
Pedestrians Injured
166
Cyclists Injured
1,521
Motorists Injured
12
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · 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 Sunday, with 1587 crashes in the prior period, to Tuesday, with 1543 crashes in the current period. The peak hour also changed from 4 PM, which had 805 crashes in the prior period, to 5 PM, with 690 crashes in the current period. Notably, Sunday crashes decreased by 552 year-over-year.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate decreased from 0.19% in the prior period to 0.11% in the current period, with fatal crashes decreasing by 9, from 19 to 10. Serious injury crashes (severity code A) saw a slight decrease from 199 to 192, while minor injury crashes (severity code B) decreased from 961 to 835.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 10 fatal crash events resulted in 12 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor, "FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY," saw a minor count decrease from 1014 to 1011 crashes. "FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY" increased in count from 780 to 806 crashes, while "FAILING TO REDUCE SPEED TO AVOID CRASH" experienced a notable decrease of 101 crashes, from 434 to 333.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in 'CLEAR' weather conditions decreased from 8842 to 7848, while crashes in 'RAIN' conditions increased from 409 to 492. Similarly, crashes on 'WET' road surfaces increased from 565 to 650. Crashes during 'DAYLIGHT' decreased from 6795 to 6400, and 'DARKNESS, LIGHTED ROAD' crashes also decreased from 2039 to 1704.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 20473 in the prior period to 18812 in the current period. All age groups from 0-15 to 55-64 showed a decrease in their crash involvement counts, with the 21-25 age group experiencing the largest drop from 2038 to 1716. The top vehicle makes, Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford, all recorded fewer crashes year-over-year.
Top Vehicle Makes (18,812 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,157 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 (19,432 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph speed zones decreased from 7375 to 6797, with fatal crashes in this zone dropping significantly from 17 to 8. The fatal rate for 30 mph zones decreased from 0.231% to 0.118%. Crashes in 35 mph zones also saw a reduction from 663 to 499.
Fatal crashes by zone: 15 mph: 1 of 367 (0.272%) · 30 mph: 8 of 6,797 (0.118%) · 35 mph: 1 of 499 (0.2%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · 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: 2022-08-01 through 2022-08-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-08-01 through 2022-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,233
- Total persons involved: 19,761
- Total vehicles involved: 18,812
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-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: 2022-08-01 – 2022-08-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved