ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JANUARY 2019
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-2019-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,116 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JANUARY 2019
In January 2019, Chicago recorded 9,116 total crashes, a decrease of 4.36% compared to the 9,532 crashes reported in January 2018. Despite the overall reduction in crashes, total fatalities increased by 9.09%, rising from 11 in the prior period to 12 in the current period.
9,116
▼ -4.4%was 9,532
Total Crash Events
12
▲ 9.1%was 11
Persons Killed
1,499
▼ -15.5%was 1,775
Persons Injured
2,441
▲ 1.5%was 2,404
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (12) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (10) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 12 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, the number of crashes in Chicago decreased year-over-year, with a 4.36% reduction from 9,532 crashes in January 2018 to 9,116 crashes in January 2019. However, total fatalities saw an increase of 9.09%, rising from 11 to 12 during the same period.
2,441
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2019
▲ 1.5% vs prior (2,404)
Hit-and-run crashes increased by 1.54%, from 2,404 incidents in January 2018 to 2,441 in January 2019. The hit-and-run rate also saw an increase, rising from 25.2% of all crashes in the prior period to 26.8% in the current period, indicating an upward trend.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
10
Motorists Killed
218
Pedestrians Injured
30
Cyclists Injured
1,251
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · 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 Tuesday in January 2018, with 1,659 crashes, to Thursday in January 2019, which saw 1,580 crashes. Similarly, the peak hour for crashes moved from 8 AM (729 crashes) in the prior period to 5 PM (722 crashes) in the current period, indicating a shift towards evening rush hour for peak crash frequency.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate slightly increased from 0.09% in January 2018 to 0.11% in January 2019, with the number of fatal crashes rising from 9 to 10. Concurrently, all injury severity categories saw reductions: serious injury crashes decreased by 25.16% (from 159 to 119), minor injury crashes by 17.09% (from 714 to 592), and possible injury crashes by 19.00% (from 458 to 371).
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 10 fatal crash events resulted in 12 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factors showed shifts in both count and ranking. 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' moved from the top factor in January 2018 (1,160 crashes) to the second in January 2019 (942 crashes), representing an 18.79% decrease in count. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' became the leading factor in January 2019 with 956 crashes, down 9.47% from 1,056 crashes in the prior year. Notably, crashes attributed to 'WEATHER' increased significantly by 134.83%, from 290 to 681 incidents.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Significant shifts occurred in weather and road surface conditions. Crashes in 'SNOW' weather conditions dramatically increased by 141.91% (from 964 to 2,332), while 'CLEAR' weather crashes decreased by 23.93% (from 7,057 to 5,368). Correspondingly, crashes on 'SNOW OR SLUSH' road surfaces surged by 163.08% (from 994 to 2,615), while crashes on 'DRY' surfaces fell by 28.71% (from 5,594 to 3,988).
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by 4.84%, from 19,341 in January 2018 to 18,404 in January 2019. While the top vehicle makes remained consistent, Toyota and Chevrolet both saw reductions in involvement by 5.61% and 7.81% respectively. The age group 26-34 years old saw a slight decrease in representation by 1.71% (from 3,451 to 3,392 persons), and the 35-44 age group decreased by 5.14% (from 2,860 to 2,713 persons).
Top Vehicle Makes (18,404 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
5,556 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 (19,734 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed zone, which accounts for the majority of incidents, decreased by 4.50% from 7,074 to 6,756 crashes. However, fatal crashes within this zone significantly increased by 125%, rising from 4 to 9, leading to a fatal rate increase from 0.057% to 0.133%. Conversely, the 20 mph speed zone saw a reduction in total crashes from 355 to 333, and fatal crashes in this zone decreased from 1 to 0.
Fatal crashes by zone: 10 mph: 1 of 152 (0.658%) · 30 mph: 9 of 6,756 (0.133%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-01-31 · 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: 2019-01-01 through 2019-01-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2019-01-01 through 2019-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,116
- Total persons involved: 19,995
- Total vehicles involved: 18,404
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-2019-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: 2019-01-01 – 2019-01-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved