ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JANUARY 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/january-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,105 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JANUARY 2023
Total crashes in January 2023 decreased by 1.1% to 8,105 compared to 8,195 in January 2022. Despite this reduction in overall incidents, total fatalities increased by 25%, rising from 12 to 15. The most notable shift was the significant increase in fatalities and injuries, indicating a rise in crash severity despite fewer total crashes.
8,105
▼ -1.1%was 8,195
Total Crash Events
15
▲ 25.0%was 12
Persons Killed
1,488
▲ 5.2%was 1,415
Persons Injured
2,630
▼ -0.9%was 2,653
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (15) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (15) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 14 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, total crashes showed a slight downward trend, decreasing by 1.1% from 8,195 in January 2022 to 8,105 in January 2023. However, this period saw an increase in severe outcomes, with total fatalities rising by 25% (from 12 to 15) and total injuries increasing by 5.2% (from 1,415 to 1,488).
2,630
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2023
▼ -0.9% vs prior (2,653)
The total count of hit-and-run crashes decreased slightly by 23, from 2,653 in the prior period to 2,630 in the current period. Despite this minor reduction in count, the hit-and-run crash rate remained stable at 32.4% of all crashes for both periods.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
8
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
7
Motorists Killed
194
Pedestrians Injured
27
Cyclists Injured
1,267
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · 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 Saturday in the prior period (1,381 crashes) to Tuesday in the current period (1,291 crashes). The peak hour for crashes remained consistently at 3 PM in both periods, though the count decreased from 668 to 621 crashes.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate increased from 0.13% in the prior period to 0.19% in the current period. Serious injuries (Severity A) rose from 105 to 133, and minor injuries (Severity B) increased from 598 to 623. Conversely, possible injuries (Severity C) saw a decrease from 347 to 326.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Failing to Yield Right-of-Way increased by 88 crashes (10.8%) from 813 to 901, and its share of factors rose from 9.9% to 11.1%. Crashes attributed to Weather decreased significantly by 252 (55.6%) from 453 to 201, with its share dropping from 5.5% to 2.5%. Improper Overtaking/Passing increased by 112 crashes (37.6%), rising from 298 to 410, and its share grew from 3.6% to 5.1%.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
There was a significant shift in crash conditions, with crashes occurring in snowy conditions decreasing by 409 (29.0%) and on icy roads by 502 (81.4%). In contrast, crashes in rainy conditions increased substantially by 625 (801.3%) from 78 to 703, and crashes on wet roads rose by 706 (67.8%). The number of crashes occurring in clear weather also decreased by 625 (11.2%) from 5,572 to 4,947.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased slightly by 164 (1.0%) from 16,599 to 16,435. Toyota became the most frequently involved vehicle make, increasing its count by 131 from 1,718 to 1,849, while Chevrolet and Ford saw decreases in their involvement counts.
Top Vehicle Makes (16,435 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
5,389 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 (17,094 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed zone continued to account for the highest number of crashes, increasing by 97 from 5,850 to 5,947. Fatal crashes in 30 mph zones rose from 9 to 12, with the fatal rate in these zones increasing from 0.154% to 0.202%. A fatal crash in a 45 mph zone was reported in the prior period but not in the current period.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 561 (0.178%) · 30 mph: 12 of 5,947 (0.202%) · 35 mph: 2 of 480 (0.417%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · 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: 2023-01-01 through 2023-01-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-01-01 through 2023-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,105
- Total persons involved: 17,428
- Total vehicles involved: 16,435
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-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: 2023-01-01 – 2023-01-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved