ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JULY 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/july-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,528 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JULY 2023
In July 2023, Chicago experienced 9,528 total crashes, a 2.86% increase compared to 9,263 crashes in July 2022. The most significant year-over-year change was a 52.63% decrease in total fatalities, from 19 in July 2022 to 9 in July 2023.
9,528
▲ 2.9%was 9,263
Total Crash Events
9
▼ -52.6%was 19
Persons Killed
2,259
▲ 3.3%was 2,186
Persons Injured
2,974
▼ -3.1%was 3,070
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (9) 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. 26 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash incidents in Chicago showed a slight upward trend, with total crashes increasing by 2.86% from 9,263 in July 2022 to 9,528 in July 2023. Conversely, total fatalities saw a substantial decrease of 52.63%, dropping from 19 to 9 over the same period, while total injuries increased by 3.34% from 2,186 to 2,259.
2,974
Hit-and-Run Crashes — July 2023
▼ -3.1% vs prior (3,070)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased from 3,070 in July 2022 to 2,974 in July 2023, a reduction of 96 incidents. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate trended downwards, decreasing by 1.9 percentage points from 33.1% to 31.2% of all crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
6
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
208
Pedestrians Injured
199
Cyclists Injured
1,844
Motorists Injured
8
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · 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 Friday in July 2022 (1,658 crashes) to Saturday in July 2023 (1,594 crashes), though Friday's crash count decreased by 245. The peak hour for crashes remained 4 PM in both periods, with 746 crashes in July 2023 compared to 674 in July 2022. Monday experienced the largest increase in crashes, rising from 1,091 to 1,506.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate decreased significantly from 0.19% in July 2022 to 0.08% in July 2023, with the number of fatal crashes dropping from 18 to 8. Serious injury crashes also decreased in count from 207 to 189, while minor and possible injury crashes both saw increases, rising from 893 to 912 and 401 to 460 respectively. Crashes resulting in no injury increased from 7,717 to 7,933.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 8 fatal crash events resulted in 9 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor, 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way,' increased by 99 crashes (10.42%) from 950 in July 2022 to 1,049 in July 2023. 'Driving Skills/Knowledge/Experience' saw a notable increase of 64 crashes (19.22%), rising from 333 to 397 and moving from fifth to fourth highest. Conversely, 'Following Too Closely' remained stable with a minor decrease of 1 crash, and 'Failing to Reduce Speed to Avoid Crash' decreased by 4 crashes (1.01%).
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased by 159, while those in rainy conditions significantly increased by 344, from 488 in July 2022 to 832 in July 2023. Correspondingly, crashes on wet road surfaces rose by 392 incidents, from 635 to 1,027, indicating a shift towards more crashes under adverse road conditions. Crashes during daylight hours saw a slight increase of 30, and those in darkness on lighted roads increased by 91.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The ranking of top vehicle makes involved in crashes shifted, with Toyota moving to the first position in July 2023 (2,235 vehicles) from second in July 2022 (2,003 vehicles), surpassing Chevrolet. All listed age groups for persons involved in crashes showed an increase, with the 26-34 age group seeing the largest rise from 3,180 to 3,485. Overall, the total number of vehicles involved increased from 18,895 to 19,798.
Top Vehicle Makes (19,798 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,566 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 (21,045 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed zone, which is the most common, increased by 141 incidents from 6,818 to 6,959, but its fatal crash rate significantly decreased from 0.22% to 0.072%. Crashes in the 35 mph zone also increased by 97, from 552 to 649, while its fatal rate decreased from 0.181% to 0.154%. The 40 mph zone saw its fatal crash count drop from 1 to 0.
Fatal crashes by zone: 10 mph: 1 of 270 (0.37%) · 30 mph: 5 of 6,959 (0.072%) · 35 mph: 1 of 649 (0.154%) · 45 mph: 1 of 82 (1.22%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · 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: 2023-07-01 through 2023-07-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-07-01 through 2023-07-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,528
- Total persons involved: 21,569
- Total vehicles involved: 19,798
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-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: 2023-07-01 – 2023-07-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved