ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JANUARY 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/january-2017-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
4,363 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JANUARY 2017
In January 2017, Chicago experienced 4363 total crashes, a substantial increase of 57.79% compared to the 2765 crashes recorded in January 2016. Total fatalities saw a significant rise, jumping from 1 in the prior period to 3 in the current period, representing a 200% increase. Overall, the data indicates a notable increase in crash incidents and their severity year-over-year.
4,363
▲ 57.8%was 2,765
Total Crash Events
3
▲ 200.0%was 1
Persons Killed
321
▲ 58.9%was 202
Persons Injured
1,205
▲ 68.8%was 714
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (3) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) 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 · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend shows a significant increase in crash activity year-over-year. Total crashes rose by 57.79%, from 2765 in January 2016 to 4363 in January 2017. Correspondingly, total injuries increased by 58.91%, from 202 to 321, indicating a worsening safety trend.
1,205
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2017
▲ 68.8% vs prior (714)
Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, rising by 68.77% in count from 714 to 1205. The hit-and-run rate also saw an upward trend, increasing from 25.8% of total crashes in January 2016 to 27.6% in January 2017.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
2
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
47
Pedestrians Injured
11
Cyclists Injured
262
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
Temporal patterns shifted slightly, with the peak day for crashes moving from Friday (491 crashes) in January 2016 to Tuesday (722 crashes) in January 2017. The peak hour for crashes remained 5 PM in both periods, although the count increased from 243 crashes in the prior period to 366 crashes in the current period. Crashes occurring during 'DARKNESS' (without lighted roads) saw a significant count increase from 159 to 452, representing a proportional increase from 5.7% to 10.4% of total crashes.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate increased from 0.04% in January 2016 to 0.07% in January 2017, with fatal crashes rising from 1 to 3. Serious injury crashes (severity 'A') saw a 188.89% increase in count, from 9 to 26, and their proportion of total crashes doubled from 0.3% to 0.6%. Minor injury crashes (severity 'B') also increased by 115.38% in count, from 52 to 112, and their proportion rose from 1.9% to 2.6%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factors remained consistent in ranking but saw significant increases in count year-over-year. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' increased by 47.06% from 374 to 550 crashes, while 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' rose by 69.83% from 242 to 411 crashes. 'IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING' increased by 57.58% from 132 to 208 crashes, and 'IMPROPER BACKING' increased by 60.83% from 120 to 193 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Adverse weather conditions showed notable shifts; crashes during 'RAIN' increased significantly in count from 170 to 603, and their proportion of total crashes rose from 6.15% to 13.82%. Conversely, crashes during 'SNOW' decreased in count from 205 to 94, with their proportion dropping from 7.41% to 2.15%. Road surface conditions also reflected these changes, with crashes on 'WET' surfaces increasing in proportion from 15.3% to 20.7%, while 'SNOW OR SLUSH' surfaces saw a decrease in proportion from 7.7% to 1.5%.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 56.24%, from 5559 to 8686. There was a shift in the top vehicle makes involved, with Chevrolet moving from second to first place (648 to 957), slightly surpassing Toyota (661 to 953) which was first in the prior period. The count of pedestrian-involved vehicles more than doubled from 28 to 58, and bicycle-involved vehicles nearly tripled from 9 to 25.
Top Vehicle Makes (8,686 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
3,093 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 (9,018 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph speed zones increased by 64.94% in count, from 2011 to 3317, with the number of fatal crashes in this zone doubling from 1 to 2. In 35 mph zones, crashes increased by 11.17% in count, from 197 to 219, and this zone recorded 1 fatal crash in the current period compared to 0 in the prior period. The fatal crash rate in 30 mph zones slightly increased from 0.05% to 0.06%.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 2 of 3,317 (0.06%) · 35 mph: 1 of 219 (0.457%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-01-31 · 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: 2017-01-01 through 2017-01-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2017-01-01 through 2017-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 4,363
- Total persons involved: 9,134
- Total vehicles involved: 8,686
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/january-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: 2017-01-01 – 2017-01-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved