ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · AUGUST 2024
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-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,924 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
AUGUST 2024
Total crashes in August 2024 increased by 1.50% to 9924, up from 9777 in August 2023. While total fatalities remained constant at 10, total injuries rose by 8.94% from 2192 to 2388. This indicates a notable increase in injury severity despite a smaller rise in overall crash incidents.
9,924
▲ 1.5%was 9,777
Total Crash Events
10
Persons Killed
2,388
▲ 8.9%was 2,192
Persons Injured
3,054
▼ -0.9%was 3,083
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (10) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (9) 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 · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Chicago showed a slight upward trend year-over-year, with total crashes increasing by 1.50%. Total fatalities remained stable, but the number of injured persons increased by 8.94%. This suggests that crashes, while slightly more frequent, resulted in a higher proportion of injuries.
3,054
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2024
▼ -0.9% vs prior (3,083)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased slightly from 3083 in August 2023 to 3054 in August 2024, a reduction of 29 incidents. The hit-and-run rate also saw a minor decrease, moving from 31.5% in the prior period to 30.8% in the current period. This indicates a slight downward trend in both the number and proportion of hit-and-run incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
6
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
4
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
249
Pedestrians Injured
218
Cyclists Injured
1,905
Motorists Injured
16
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · 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 Thursday in August 2023 (1578 crashes) to Friday in August 2024 (1763 crashes). The peak hour also changed, moving from 3 p.m. (840 crashes) in the prior period to 4 p.m. (763 crashes) in the current period. This indicates a shift in the timing of the highest crash frequency.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes decreased slightly from 10 to 9, though the fatal crash rate remained stable at 0.1% of total crashes. Serious injury crashes (code 'A') decreased from 185 to 170, while minor injury crashes (code 'B') increased from 909 to 942. Possible injury crashes (code 'C') saw a significant increase from 461 to 597, contributing to the overall rise in total injuries.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 9 fatal crash events resulted in 10 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top two contributing factors, 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way' and 'Following Too Closely,' both increased in count, rising by 40 crashes (3.8%) to 1090 and 71 crashes (9.1%) to 854, respectively. Conversely, 'Improper Overtaking/Passing' decreased by 35 crashes (6.5%) from 542 to 507. 'Failing to Reduce Speed to Avoid Crash' also saw a decrease of 37 crashes (8.6%) from 429 to 392.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased by 310, from 8232 to 8542, while those during rain decreased by 108, from 581 to 473. Crashes in 'DARKNESS, LIGHTED ROAD' conditions increased by 194, from 1574 to 1768. Wet road surface crashes remained relatively stable, decreasing slightly by 5 incidents from 663 to 658.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes slightly decreased from 20374 to 20286. While the count of 'DRIVER' type vehicles decreased by 269, 'PARKED' vehicles increased by 102, and 'PEDESTRIAN' involvement increased by 57. Toyota, Chevrolet, and Ford remained the top three vehicle makes involved in crashes, with Ford seeing the largest increase in count among the top five, rising by 131.
Top Vehicle Makes (20,286 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,289 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 (21,234 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed zone continued to account for the majority of crashes, increasing slightly from 7276 to 7314 crashes, though fatalities within this zone decreased from 10 to 6. Crashes in the 25 mph zone increased by 73, from 674 to 747, and the 20 mph zone saw an increase of 26 crashes, from 405 to 431, with both zones recording one fatality in the current period compared to zero in the prior period. This indicates a shift in fatal crash distribution across speed zones.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 431 (0.232%) · 25 mph: 1 of 747 (0.134%) · 30 mph: 6 of 7,314 (0.082%) · 40 mph: 1 of 88 (1.136%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · 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: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,924
- Total persons involved: 21,700
- Total vehicles involved: 20,286
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-2024-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: 2024-08-01 – 2024-08-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved