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CRASH INTELLIGENCE REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · DECEMBER 2016
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/december-2016-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
5,052 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
DECEMBER 2016
Total crashes in Chicago during December 2016 were 5,052, resulting in 1 fatality and 332 injuries. A significant majority of these crashes, 94.8%, were classified as "No Injury" incidents. This indicates that while crashes are frequent, most do not lead to physical harm.
5,052
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
332
Persons Injured
26.6%
Hit-and-Run Rate
Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 4 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
1,346
Hit-and-Run Crashes — December 2016
There were 1,346 hit-and-run crashes reported in Chicago during December 2016, accounting for 26.6% of all crashes. This figure represents the initial determination made by the responding officer at the time of the incident.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
In December 2016, 1 motorist was killed and 294 motorists were injured in crashes. While no pedestrians or cyclists were killed, 35 pedestrians and 3 cyclists sustained injuries.
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
35
Pedestrians Injured
3
Cyclists Injured
294
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
Crashes were most frequent on Fridays, with 927 incidents recorded, followed by Thursdays with 807 crashes. The peak hour for crashes was 3 PM, experiencing 435 incidents. Over half of all crashes, 53.8%, occurred during daylight hours, while 35.6% happened in darkness (lighted or unlighted).
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The data indicates that 94.8% of all crashes in December 2016 resulted in no reported injuries. Crashes involving any level of injury (serious, minor, or possible) collectively accounted for 5.1% of the total. There was 1 fatal crash recorded, which resulted in 1 fatality, noting that a single crash event can involve multiple fatalities.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Following too closely was the most frequently cited contributing factor, involved in 602 crashes, or 11.9% of the total. Failing to yield right-of-way was the second leading factor, contributing to 467 crashes (9.2%). It is common in crash reporting for a significant portion of factors to be categorized as 'Unable to Determine' or 'Unknown.'
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
A majority of crashes occurred under clear weather conditions (75.1%), on dry road surfaces (60.2%), and during daylight hours (53.8%). However, adverse conditions were also present in a notable number of incidents, with 708 crashes occurring in snow, 573 on wet roads, and 1,800 crashes happening in darkness (lighted or unlighted).
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Among the age groups with recorded data, individuals aged 26-34 were most represented, accounting for 1,675 persons. This was followed by the 35-44 age group with 1,433 persons and the 45-54 age group with 1,186 persons. Toyota, Chevrolet, and Ford were the most frequently involved vehicle makes, with 1,223, 1,208, and 978 instances respectively.
Top Vehicle Makes (10,171 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
3,596 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 (10,750 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed limit zone accounted for the highest number of crashes, with 3,806 incidents, representing 75.3% of all crashes. Within this specific zone, 0.026% of crashes were fatal. No other speed limit zones recorded any fatal crashes in December 2016.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 3,806 (0.026%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Posted speed limit at crash location
Crashes by District
Police District 08 recorded the highest number of crashes, with 527 incidents, representing 10.4% of all crashes. Other districts with high crash counts include District 01 with 411 crashes and District 18 with 380 crashes. This indicates a concentration of crash activity within a few specific police districts.
Crashes by District
"Other" combines 15 smaller categories (2,622 records): District 06 (218), District 19 (218), District 07 (211), District 24 (209), District 16 (206), District 17 (195), District 14 (192), District 04 (180), District 22 (169), District 11 (166), District 10 (159), District 02 (151), District 20 (140), District 15 (111), District 05 (97).
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Person-level records
First Crash Type
Rear-end collisions were the most common type of first crash, accounting for 1,503 incidents or 29.7% of the total. Crashes involving a parked motor vehicle were the second most frequent, with 1,100 occurrences (21.8%). Sideswipe same direction crashes also represented a significant portion, with 885 incidents (17.5%).
First Crash Type
Showing top 9 of 14 reported. 5 additional (54 total) not shown: OTHER OBJECT, PEDALCYCLIST, OTHER NONCOLLISION, OVERTURNED, ANIMAL.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Person-level records
Point of Impact
The front of the vehicle was the most common point of impact, recorded in 1,995 instances, representing 23.9% of all recorded impacts. The rear was the second most frequent impact area with 1,602 instances (19.2%), followed by the front-left with 1,285 instances (15.4%).
Point of Impact
"Other" combines 5 smaller categories (644 records): REAR-RIGHT (560), OTHER (41), TOTAL (ALL AREAS) (19), UNDER CARRIAGE (18), ROOF (6).
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Person-level records
Pre-Crash Driver Action
Straight ahead was the most frequent pre-crash action, observed in 4,722 instances, accounting for 46.6% of recorded actions. Parked was the second most common action, with 1,146 instances (11.3%). Slow/stop in traffic was reported in 789 instances, representing 7.8% of actions.
Pre-Crash Driver Action
Showing top 9 of 25 reported. 16 additional (826 total) not shown: OTHER, ENTERING TRAFFIC LANE FROM PARKING, SKIDDING/CONTROL LOSS, MERGING, STARTING IN TRAFFIC, U-TURN, SLOW/STOP - LEFT TURN, ENTER FROM DRIVE/ALLEY, LEAVING TRAFFIC LANE TO PARK, AVOIDING VEHICLES/OBJECTS, SLOW/STOP - RIGHT TURN, PARKED IN TRAFFIC LANE, SLOW/STOP - LOAD/UNLOAD, NEGOTIATING A CURVE, DRIVING WRONG WAY, TURNING ON RED.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Person-level records
Pedestrian/Cyclist Action
Among recorded pedestrian actions, crossing with signal was the most common, occurring in 18 instances, or 27.7% of the total. With traffic was reported in 7 instances (10.8%), and other action in 6 instances (9.2%).
Pedestrian/Cyclist Action
Showing top 9 of 12 reported. 3 additional (4 total) not shown: NO ACTION, PLAYING IN ROADWAY, TURNING LEFT.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2016-12-01 to 2016-12-31 · Person-level records
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: 2016-12-01 through 2016-12-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2016-12-01 through 2016-12-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 5,052
- Total persons involved: 10,866
- Total vehicles involved: 10,171
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/december-2016-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: 2016-12-01 – 2016-12-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved