ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · FEBRUARY 2023
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-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,099 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
FEBRUARY 2023
In February 2023, Chicago experienced 8,099 total crashes, a 1.71% increase from the 7,963 crashes reported in February 2022. A notable shift was the 400% increase in pedestrian fatalities, rising from 1 in the prior period to 5 in the current period.
8,099
▲ 1.7%was 7,963
Total Crash Events
15
▲ 7.1%was 14
Persons Killed
1,455
▲ 6.9%was 1,361
Persons Injured
2,528
▼ -1.4%was 2,565
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (15) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (13) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 21 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, traffic crashes in Chicago saw a slight increase year-over-year, rising by 1.71% from 7,963 crashes in February 2022 to 8,099 in February 2023. Total fatalities also increased by 7.14%, from 14 to 15, while total injuries rose by 6.91%, from 1,361 to 1,455.
2,528
Hit-and-Run Crashes — February 2023
▼ -1.4% vs prior (2,565)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased slightly by 37, from 2,565 in February 2022 to 2,528 in February 2023. This resulted in a minor reduction of the hit-and-run rate, which went from 32.2% in the prior period to 31.2% in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
5
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
10
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
201
Pedestrians Injured
37
Cyclists Injured
1,216
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes remained Friday in both periods, with 1,433 crashes in February 2023 and 1,265 in February 2022. The peak hour for crashes also remained 3 PM, although the number of crashes at this hour decreased from 735 in the prior period to 619 in the current period.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate increased from 0.14% in February 2022 to 0.16% in February 2023, with the number of fatal crashes rising from 11 to 13. Serious injury crashes also saw an increase from 112 to 129, representing a change from 1.4% to 1.6% of total crashes. Minor injury crashes increased from 549 (6.9% share) to 593 (7.3% share), while possible injury crashes remained at a 4% share in both periods.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 13 fatal crash events resulted in 15 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' remained the top factor, increasing by 32 crashes (4.0%) to 840. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' also increased significantly by 80 crashes (12.6%) to 714. Conversely, 'WEATHER' as a contributing factor saw a substantial decrease of 147 crashes (-38.9%), falling from 378 in the prior period to 231 in the current period, shifting its ranking from 3rd to 8th.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
There was a significant shift in weather conditions contributing to crashes, with 'SNOW' related crashes decreasing by 891, from 1,283 to 392. Concurrently, 'RAIN' related crashes more than doubled, increasing by 418 from 355 to 773. The number of crashes on 'DRY' road surfaces increased by 1,251, while crashes on 'SNOW OR SLUSH' surfaces decreased by 1,321.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 1.85% to 16,367. Crashes involving 'PEDESTRIAN' vehicle types increased by 43 (22.4%) to 235, and 'BICYCLE' vehicle types increased by 17 (51.5%) to 50. In terms of top makes, TOYOTA became the most frequently involved make with 1,772 vehicles, surpassing CHEVROLET which had 1,745 vehicles.
Top Vehicle Makes (16,367 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Vehicle unit records
5,156 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 (17,233 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 25 MPH speed zones increased by 64 (13.14%) to 551, with the fatal rate decreasing slightly from 0.411% to 0.363%. Crashes in 30 MPH zones, the most common, increased by 137 (2.35%) to 5,974, and the fatal rate rose from 0.137% to 0.151%. Notably, 45 MPH zones saw an increase of 8 crashes (15.09%) to 61, and the fatal rate increased from 0% to 1.639% in this zone.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 551 (0.363%) · 30 mph: 9 of 5,974 (0.151%) · 35 mph: 1 of 466 (0.215%) · 45 mph: 1 of 61 (1.639%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · 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: 2023-02-01 through 2023-02-28
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-02-01 through 2023-02-28 (28 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,099
- Total persons involved: 17,584
- Total vehicles involved: 16,367
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-2023-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: 2023-02-01 – 2023-02-28
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved