ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JANUARY 2025
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-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,221 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JANUARY 2025
In January 2025, Chicago recorded 8,221 crashes, a slight decrease from 8,234 crashes in January 2024. However, total fatalities rose by 50% year-over-year, from 4 to 6. Injuries also saw a notable increase of 14.7%, from 1,555 to 1,784.
8,221
▼ -0.2%was 8,234
Total Crash Events
6
▲ 50.0%was 4
Persons Killed
1,784
▲ 14.7%was 1,555
Persons Injured
2,422
▼ -2.4%was 2,481
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (6) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 9 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash incidents in Chicago remained relatively stable year-over-year, with a minor decrease of 0.16% from 8,234 crashes in January 2024 to 8,221 crashes in January 2025. Despite this, total fatalities increased significantly by 50%, rising from 4 to 6, and total injuries increased by 14.7%, from 1,555 to 1,784.
2,422
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2025
▼ -2.4% vs prior (2,481)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased by 59 incidents, from 2,481 in January 2024 to 2,422 in January 2025. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate also saw a slight decrease, moving from 30.1% of all crashes to 29.5%.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
4
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
247
Pedestrians Injured
48
Cyclists Injured
1,487
Motorists Injured
2
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · 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 Wednesday in January 2024 (1,337 crashes) to Friday in January 2025 (1,619 crashes). While the peak hour remained 3 PM in both periods, the number of crashes at this hour decreased from 659 in January 2024 to 624 in January 2025.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate increased from 0.05% in January 2024 to 0.07% in January 2025. While serious injury crashes decreased from 114 to 90, representing a shift from 1.4% to 1.1% of all crashes, minor injury crashes increased from 588 to 678, and possible injury crashes rose from 442 to 510.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor, "FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY," increased by 37 crashes (4.1%) from 907 to 944 year-over-year. "FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY" also increased by 38 crashes (5.6%), from 682 to 720. Notably, crashes attributed to "WEATHER" decreased by 102 incidents (27.3%), falling from 374 in January 2024 to 272 in January 2025.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in 'CLEAR' weather conditions increased from 4,244 to 5,814, while crashes during 'SNOW' and 'RAIN' conditions decreased significantly, from 1,218 to 960 and 1,028 to 293 respectively. Correspondingly, crashes on 'DRY' road surfaces rose from 3,148 to 4,686, while those on 'WET' and 'SNOW OR SLUSH' surfaces saw substantial decreases.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes saw a minor increase from 16,610 to 16,644. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved, while Honda saw an increase from 1,294 to 1,387 vehicles involved. The 26-34 age group saw the largest increase in person involvement, rising from 2,913 to 3,225 persons.
Top Vehicle Makes (16,644 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
4,907 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 (17,471 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph zones increased from 6,059 to 6,100, with associated fatalities rising significantly from 2 to 5. Crashes in 35 mph zones decreased from 504 to 437, but recorded 1 fatality in the current period compared to none in the prior period. Conversely, crashes in 45 mph zones decreased from 83 to 45, and the 1 fatality observed in the prior period was not repeated.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 5 of 6,100 (0.082%) · 35 mph: 1 of 437 (0.229%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · 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: 2025-01-01 through 2025-01-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-01-01 through 2025-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,221
- Total persons involved: 17,784
- Total vehicles involved: 16,644
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-2025-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: 2025-01-01 – 2025-01-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved