ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · FEBRUARY 2017
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/february-2017-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
4,109 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
FEBRUARY 2017
In February 2017, Chicago experienced a significant increase in crash activity compared to February 2016. Total crashes rose from 2,539 to 4,109, representing a 61.83% increase year-over-year. The most notable shift was the rise in total fatalities, from 0 in February 2016 to 5 in February 2017.
4,109
▲ 61.8%was 2,539
Total Crash Events
5
Persons Killed
339
▲ 104.2%was 166
Persons Injured
1,088
▲ 65.1%was 659
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (5) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (5) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 6 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash activity in Chicago showed a substantial upward trend year-over-year, with total crashes increasing by 61.83%, from 2,539 in February 2016 to 4,109 in February 2017. This period also saw a concerning rise in fatalities, with 5 deaths recorded in February 2017 compared to none in the prior year.
1,088
Hit-and-Run Crashes — February 2017
▲ 65.1% vs prior (659)
The number of hit-and-run crashes increased from 659 in February 2016 to 1,088 in February 2017. The hit-and-run rate showed a slight upward trend, increasing from 26% of all crashes in the prior period to 26.5% in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
44
Pedestrians Injured
6
Cyclists Injured
289
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns for crashes showed some shifts year-over-year. While Friday remained the peak day for crashes in both periods, with 714 crashes in February 2017 compared to 443 in February 2016, the peak hour for crashes shifted from 3 PM (216 crashes) in 2016 to 2 PM (332 crashes) in 2017.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity distribution of crashes changed notably, with the fatal crash rate increasing from 0% in February 2016 to 0.12% in February 2017, corresponding to 5 fatal crashes. The count of serious injuries increased from 14 to 29, and minor injuries rose from 43 to 114, indicating a higher proportion of injury-involved crashes in the current period.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' saw a 106.28% increase in count, rising from 239 crashes in February 2016 to 493 in February 2017, and became the top factor. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' increased by 49.69% in count, from 322 to 482 crashes, moving from first to second highest. The factor 'DRIVING SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE' also increased by 62.72% in count, from 169 to 106 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes under clear weather conditions increased by 83.75% in count, from 1,939 to 3,563. Crashes during rain saw a significant 228.05% increase in count, from 82 to 269. Conversely, crashes during snow decreased dramatically by 95.67% in count, from 231 to 10, reflecting milder winter conditions in the current period.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 63.0%, from 5,078 in February 2016 to 8,278 in February 2017. The top vehicle makes, Toyota, Chevrolet, and Ford, maintained their top three rankings, all showing substantial increases in involvement counts. Pedestrian involvement in crashes increased from 24 to 62, and bicycle involvement increased from 8 to 18.
Top Vehicle Makes (8,278 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Vehicle unit records
2,854 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 (8,909 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed limit zone increased from 1,825 to 3,080, and this zone accounted for 3 fatal crashes in February 2017, compared to none in the prior year. Additionally, crashes in the 40 mph and 45 mph zones also saw increases, with each zone recording 1 fatal crash in the current period, up from zero in the prior year.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 3 of 3,080 (0.097%) · 40 mph: 1 of 48 (2.083%) · 45 mph: 1 of 30 (3.333%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-02-01 to 2017-02-28 · 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: 2017-02-01 through 2017-02-28
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2017-02-01 through 2017-02-28 (28 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 4,109
- Total persons involved: 8,986
- Total vehicles involved: 8,278
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/february-2017-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: 2017-02-01 – 2017-02-28
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved