ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · FEBRUARY 2018
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-2018-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,730 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
FEBRUARY 2018
Total crashes in Chicago saw a significant increase, rising from 4,109 in February 2017 to 8,730 in February 2018, marking a 112.46% increase. Concurrently, total injuries surged by 280.82%, from 339 to 1,291. The most notable year-over-year shift was the substantial increase in crashes related to 'WEATHER' as a contributing factor, which rose by 2033.3% from 21 incidents to 448.
8,730
▲ 112.5%was 4,109
Total Crash Events
6
▲ 20.0%was 5
Persons Killed
1,291
▲ 280.8%was 339
Persons Injured
2,260
▲ 107.7%was 1,088
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (6) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 11 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash data indicates a substantial upward trend year-over-year, with total crashes more than doubling from 4,109 to 8,730, an increase of 112.46%. This increase was accompanied by a significant rise in total fatalities, from 5 to 6, and a dramatic 280.82% increase in total injuries, from 339 to 1,291. The data suggests a worsening of traffic safety conditions in February 2018 compared to the previous year.
2,260
Hit-and-Run Crashes — February 2018
▲ 107.7% vs prior (1,088)
Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly in count, rising from 1,088 in February 2017 to 2,260 in February 2018, a 107.72% increase. Despite this numerical rise, the overall hit-and-run rate relative to total crashes slightly decreased from 26.5% to 25.9% year-over-year.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
4
Motorists Killed
226
Pedestrians Injured
30
Cyclists Injured
1,035
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
Temporal patterns shifted, with the peak day for crashes moving from Friday in February 2017 (714 crashes) to Monday in February 2018 (1,406 crashes). The peak hour also shifted, from 2 PM in February 2017 (332 crashes) to 3 PM in February 2018 (660 crashes). All days of the week experienced substantial increases in crash counts, with Monday seeing a 168.3% rise and Sunday a 125.2% rise.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total fatalities increased from 5 to 6, the fatal crash rate decreased from 0.12% in February 2017 to 0.07% in February 2018. However, all categories of injury crashes saw substantial increases in count; serious injuries (Severity A) rose from 29 to 134, minor injuries (Severity B) from 114 to 531, and possible injuries (Severity C) from 108 to 337. The proportion of serious injury crashes increased from 0.7% to 1.5% of total crashes.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factors 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' and 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' remained the top two, increasing by 502 (101.8%) and 404 (83.8%) incidents respectively. The most dramatic change was in the 'WEATHER' factor, which surged by 427 incidents, representing a 2033.3% increase in count. This significant rise caused 'WEATHER' to become the third most frequent contributing factor in February 2018, up from a much lower rank in the prior period.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Adverse conditions played a much larger role in February 2018 compared to the prior year. Crashes during 'SNOW' weather increased from 10 to 1,614 incidents, a 16040% rise, and crashes on 'SNOW OR SLUSH' road surfaces increased from 6 to 1,989 incidents, a 33050% rise. Crashes under 'WET' road conditions also saw a significant increase of 1,457 incidents, representing a 382.4% change. These figures indicate a substantial shift towards more crashes occurring under winter weather and road conditions.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 111.79%, from 8,278 to 17,532. Among the top vehicle makes, Ford saw the largest count increase of 1,023 vehicles, a 136.95% change, though Chevrolet became the top make in February 2018 with 1,954 vehicles involved. All age groups of persons involved in crashes experienced increases, with the 26-34 age group showing the largest numerical increase of 1,623 persons, a 116.8% change.
Top Vehicle Makes (17,532 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Vehicle unit records
5,515 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 (18,548 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed limit zone continued to account for the majority of crashes, with incidents increasing from 3,080 to 6,282, a 103.96% change. While there were 5 fatal crashes in the 30 mph zone in February 2018 compared to 3 in February 2017, the fatal rate within this zone slightly decreased from 0.097% to 0.08%. Fatal crashes in the 40 mph and 45 mph zones, which accounted for one fatality each in February 2017, had no fatalities in February 2018.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 5 of 6,282 (0.08%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-02-01 to 2018-02-28 · 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: 2018-02-01 through 2018-02-28
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-02-01 through 2018-02-28 (28 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,730
- Total persons involved: 18,835
- Total vehicles involved: 17,532
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-2018-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: 2018-02-01 – 2018-02-28
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved