ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JULY 2020
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-2020-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,042 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JULY 2020
In July 2020, Chicago experienced 9,042 total crashes, a decrease of 15.19% compared to 10,662 crashes in July 2019. The most notable shift was a significant increase in fatalities, which rose by 187.5% from 8 in July 2019 to 23 in July 2020.
9,042
▼ -15.2%was 10,662
Total Crash Events
23
▲ 187.5%was 8
Persons Killed
2,119
▼ -1.8%was 2,158
Persons Injured
3,170
▲ 8.2%was 2,931
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (23) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (23) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 23 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, total crashes in Chicago decreased by 15.19% from 10,662 in July 2019 to 9,042 in July 2020. Despite this reduction in total incidents, the number of fatalities saw a substantial increase, indicating a concerning trend in crash severity.
3,170
Hit-and-Run Crashes — July 2020
▲ 8.2% vs prior (2,931)
Hit-and-run crashes increased by 239, from 2,931 in July 2019 to 3,170 in July 2020. This led to an increase in the hit-and-run rate by 7.6 percentage points, from 27.5% to 35.1%, indicating an upward trend for this type of incident.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
4
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
18
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
170
Pedestrians Injured
166
Cyclists Injured
1,780
Motorists Injured
3
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · 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 Wednesday (1,765 crashes) in July 2019 to Friday (1,600 crashes) in July 2020. The peak hour also moved from 5 PM (819 crashes) in July 2019 to 4 PM (675 crashes) in July 2020, with overall fewer crashes occurring during these peak times year-over-year. While most days saw fewer crashes, Thursday and Friday experienced slight increases in crash counts.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Total fatalities dramatically increased by 187.5%, from 8 in July 2019 to 23 in July 2020, raising the fatal crash rate from 0.08% to 0.25%. While total injuries decreased by 1.81% (from 2,158 to 2,119), the proportion of crashes resulting in serious, minor, or possible injuries saw increases relative to the total number of crashes.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' and 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' remained the top two factors, though their counts decreased by 215 and 276 crashes, respectively. Notably, 'OPERATING VEHICLE IN ERRATIC, RECKLESS, CARELESS, NEGLIGENT OR AGGRESSIVE MANNER' increased by 66 crashes (from 110 to 176), and 'DISREGARDING STOP SIGN' increased by 56 crashes (from 100 to 156), despite the overall reduction in total crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased by 1,579, and those in rainy conditions decreased by 21. Despite an overall decrease in crashes, incidents occurring in 'DARKNESS, LIGHTED ROAD' conditions increased by 44 crashes, from 1,603 in July 2019 to 1,647 in July 2020.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by 3,118, from 21,761 to 18,643. All recorded age groups saw a decrease in the number of persons involved in crashes. Chevrolet became the top vehicle make involved in crashes in July 2020 with 2,303 vehicles, surpassing Toyota, which was the top make in July 2019 with 2,424 vehicles.
Top Vehicle Makes (18,643 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Vehicle unit records
5,952 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 (19,337 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Fatalities at 30 mph speed zones increased by 142.86%, from 7 in July 2019 to 17 in July 2020, with the fatal rate at this speed limit rising from 0.09% to 0.261%. Additionally, 4 fatalities occurred at 25 mph zones and 2 at 35 mph zones in July 2020, where no fatalities were recorded for these zones in July 2019.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 4 of 609 (0.657%) · 30 mph: 17 of 6,523 (0.261%) · 35 mph: 2 of 707 (0.283%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · 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: 2020-07-01 through 2020-07-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-07-01 through 2020-07-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,042
- Total persons involved: 19,695
- Total vehicles involved: 18,643
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-2020-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: 2020-07-01 – 2020-07-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved