ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · FEBRUARY 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/february-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
7,963 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
FEBRUARY 2022
In February 2022, Chicago experienced 7,963 total crashes, a 5.19% decrease from the 8,399 crashes recorded in February 2021. The most notable year-over-year shift was a significant increase in fatalities, rising from 3 in February 2021 to 14 in February 2022, marking a 366.67% increase.
7,963
▼ -5.2%was 8,399
Total Crash Events
14
▲ 366.7%was 3
Persons Killed
1,361
▲ 21.2%was 1,123
Persons Injured
2,565
▼ -12.3%was 2,926
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (14) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (11) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 15 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, total crashes in Chicago decreased by 5.19% year-over-year, from 8,399 in February 2021 to 7,963 in February 2022. This indicates a downward trend in the number of crash incidents for the month.
2,565
Hit-and-Run Crashes — February 2022
▼ -12.3% vs prior (2,926)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased by 12.34% year-over-year, from 2,926 incidents in February 2021 to 2,565 in February 2022. The hit-and-run rate also saw a decrease, moving from 34.8% in February 2021 to 32.2% in February 2022, indicating a downward trend.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
13
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
164
Pedestrians Injured
25
Cyclists Injured
1,171
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · 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 Saturday in February 2021 (1,398 crashes) to Friday in February 2022 (1,265 crashes). The peak crash hour remained consistent at 3 p.m. in both periods, though the count increased from 681 in February 2021 to 735 in February 2022. While overall crashes decreased, Thursday saw an increase from 1,111 crashes in February 2021 to 1,187 in February 2022.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes increased significantly from 3 events in February 2021 to 11 events in February 2022, resulting in a fatal crash rate increase from 0.04% to 0.14%. Total injuries also rose by 21.28%, from 1,123 persons injured in February 2021 to 1,361 in February 2022. Serious injury crashes increased by 17.89% (from 95 to 112), and minor injury crashes increased by 19.09% (from 461 to 549).
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 11 fatal crash events resulted in 14 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor shifted from 'WEATHER' (762 crashes, 9.1% share) in February 2021 to 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' (808 crashes, 10.1% share) in February 2022. 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' saw a 24.88% increase in count (from 647 to 808), while 'WEATHER' related crashes decreased by 50.39% (from 762 to 378). 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' decreased slightly by 3.80% in count (from 659 to 634).
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in 'CLEAR' weather conditions increased by 13.97% (from 4,761 to 5,425), while those in 'SNOW' conditions decreased by 52.38% (from 2,694 to 1,283). Crashes on 'DRY' road surfaces saw a substantial increase of 66.76% (from 2,398 to 3,999), contrasting with a 52.44% decrease in crashes on 'SNOW OR SLUSH' surfaces (from 3,578 to 1,702).
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The age group 0-15 saw an 86.67% increase in persons involved in crashes (from 300 to 560), and the 65+ age group increased by 11.33% (from 768 to 855). In terms of vehicle makes, Chevrolet remained the most frequently involved, though its count decreased by 7.05% (from 1,900 to 1,766). Toyota moved from the third to the second most frequent make, increasing its involvement by 3.26% (from 1,595 to 1,647).
Top Vehicle Makes (16,069 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Vehicle unit records
5,191 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 (16,582 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes occurring in 30 mph speed zones decreased by 2.31% (from 5,975 to 5,837), but fatal crashes in these zones increased from 3 to 8. Crashes in 25 mph zones decreased by 17.60% (from 591 to 487), yet fatal crashes in this zone increased from 0 to 2. Crashes in 40 mph zones increased by 50.79% (from 63 to 95), with one fatal crash recorded in February 2022 compared to none in February 2021.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 487 (0.411%) · 30 mph: 8 of 5,837 (0.137%) · 40 mph: 1 of 95 (1.053%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · 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: 2022-02-01 through 2022-02-28
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-02-01 through 2022-02-28 (28 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 7,963
- Total persons involved: 16,873
- Total vehicles involved: 16,069
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-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: 2022-02-01 – 2022-02-28
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved