ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JULY 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/july-2017-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
6,758 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JULY 2017
Total crashes in July 2017 were 6,758, a significant increase from 3,316 crashes in July 2016. This represents a 103.79% increase year-over-year. The most notable shift was the more than doubling of total crashes and a 250% increase in fatalities, from 2 to 7.
6,758
▲ 103.8%was 3,316
Total Crash Events
7
▲ 250.0%was 2
Persons Killed
1,028
▲ 289.4%was 264
Persons Injured
1,927
▲ 131.9%was 831
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (7) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (7) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 17 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash activity in July 2017 shows a substantial upward trend compared to July 2016. Total crashes more than doubled, increasing by 103.79% from 3,316 to 6,758. Fatalities also saw a significant rise, increasing by 250% from 2 to 7, while total injuries increased by 289.39% from 264 to 1,028.
1,927
Hit-and-Run Crashes — July 2017
▲ 131.9% vs prior (831)
Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, rising from 831 incidents in July 2016 to 1,927 in July 2017. This represents a 131.89% increase in the count of hit-and-run crashes. The hit-and-run rate also trended upward, increasing from 25.1% of total crashes in July 2016 to 28.5% in July 2017.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
4
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
116
Pedestrians Injured
81
Cyclists Injured
830
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns for crashes shifted slightly year-over-year. While the peak crash hour remained 4 PM for both periods, the peak day for crashes shifted from Friday in July 2016 (644 crashes) to Saturday in July 2017 (1,142 crashes). All days of the week experienced an increase in crash counts.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The overall severity distribution of crashes shifted, with a notable increase in injury crashes. Fatal crashes increased from 2 in July 2016 to 7 in July 2017, and the fatal crash rate slightly rose from 0.06% to 0.1% of total crashes. Serious injury crashes (Severity A) saw a substantial proportional increase from 0.6% to 1.4% of total crashes, and minor injury crashes (Severity B) increased from 2.8% to 6.3%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factors remained consistent in their rankings, but all saw substantial increases in count. "FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY" increased from 420 to 806 crashes, and "FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY" rose from 299 to 733 crashes. "IMPROPER BACKING" also increased from 200 to 352 crashes, becoming the third most frequent factor in July 2017, displacing "IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING" which had 206 crashes in the prior period.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
While the total number of crashes under all conditions increased, there were proportional shifts in lighting conditions. Crashes occurring in "DAYLIGHT" decreased proportionally from 75.09% in July 2016 to 71.96% in July 2017. Conversely, crashes occurring in "DARKNESS, LIGHTED ROAD" saw a notable proportional increase from 10.64% to 16.97% of total crashes. Weather and road surface conditions maintained similar proportional distributions, with "CLEAR" weather and "DRY" roads remaining dominant in both periods.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 106.37%, from 6,691 in July 2016 to 13,808 in July 2017. The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes remained Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford, with their counts roughly doubling year-over-year, consistent with the overall increase in crash incidents. No significant proportional shifts were observed in the age distribution of persons involved in crashes, as all age groups experienced substantial increases in counts.
Top Vehicle Makes (13,808 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Vehicle unit records
4,636 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 (14,728 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed limit zone more than doubled, increasing from 2,383 in July 2016 to 5,008 in July 2017, and the fatal rate in this zone slightly increased from 0.084% to 0.1%. The 35 mph speed limit zone also saw a significant rise in crashes, from 225 to 442, and recorded 2 fatal crashes in July 2017 compared to none in the prior year, resulting in a 0.452% fatal rate for this zone. No general shift towards higher or lower speed zones was apparent, as the 30 mph zone remained the most frequent location for crashes.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 5 of 5,008 (0.1%) · 35 mph: 2 of 442 (0.452%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2017-07-01 to 2017-07-31 · 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: 2017-07-01 through 2017-07-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2017-07-01 through 2017-07-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 6,758
- Total persons involved: 14,908
- Total vehicles involved: 13,808
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/july-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: 2017-07-01 – 2017-07-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved