ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JULY 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/july-2019-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
10,662 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JULY 2019
Total crashes in Chicago increased by 2.84%, from 10367 in July 2018 to 10662 in July 2019. The most notable shift was a significant decrease in total fatalities, which dropped by 61.9%, from 21 in the prior period to 8 in the current period.
10,662
▲ 2.8%was 10,367
Total Crash Events
8
▼ -61.9%was 21
Persons Killed
2,158
▲ 1.0%was 2,137
Persons Injured
2,931
▲ 3.3%was 2,837
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (8) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (8) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 21 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash incidents in Chicago showed a slight upward trend year-over-year, increasing by 2.84%. Total crashes rose from 10367 in July 2018 to 10662 in July 2019, indicating a marginal increase in traffic incidents.
2,931
Hit-and-Run Crashes — July 2019
▲ 3.3% vs prior (2,837)
Hit-and-run crashes increased by 94, from 2837 in July 2018 to 2931 in July 2019, representing a 3.31% rise. The hit-and-run rate remained relatively stable year-over-year, increasing slightly from 27.4% to 27.5% of total crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
5
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
241
Pedestrians Injured
224
Cyclists Injured
1,691
Motorists Injured
2
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · 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 (1723 crashes) in July 2018 to Wednesday (1765 crashes) in July 2019. Similarly, the peak crash hour moved from 3 PM (800 crashes) in the prior period to 5 PM (819 crashes) in the current period.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate decreased significantly from 0.17% in July 2018 to 0.08% in July 2019, with total fatalities dropping from 21 to 8. Serious injury crashes decreased from 218 to 200, while minor injury crashes saw a slight increase from 880 to 905.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor, "FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY," decreased by 27 crashes, from 1177 in July 2018 to 1150 in July 2019. "FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY" also saw a decrease of 82 crashes, from 1140 to 1058, while "IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING" increased by 36 crashes, from 497 to 533.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in "CLEAR" weather conditions increased by 539, from 9159 to 9698, while those in "RAIN" decreased by 175, from 619 to 444. Similarly, crashes on "DRY" road surfaces rose by 455, from 8910 to 9365, contrasting with a decrease of 185 crashes on "WET" surfaces.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of persons involved in crashes increased from 23047 to 24101 year-over-year. The 26-34 age group experienced the largest increase in involved persons, rising by 381 from 3668 to 4049. Among vehicle makes, Nissan's involvement count rose by 192, from 1633 to 1825.
Top Vehicle Makes (21,761 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,652 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 (23,594 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed zone continued to account for the majority of crashes, increasing from 7668 to 7750 crashes, though fatalities in this zone decreased from 14 to 7. Crashes in the 25 mph zone increased from 630 to 746, with fatalities in this zone dropping from 1 to 0.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 7 of 7,750 (0.09%) · 40 mph: 1 of 104 (0.962%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-07-01 to 2019-07-31 · 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: 2019-07-01 through 2019-07-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2019-07-01 through 2019-07-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 10,662
- Total persons involved: 24,101
- Total vehicles involved: 21,761
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-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: 2019-07-01 – 2019-07-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved