ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · JULY 2024
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-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,606 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
JULY 2024
In July 2024, Chicago experienced 9606 total crashes, a slight increase of 0.82% compared to 9528 crashes in July 2023. The most significant year-over-year shift was a substantial 77.78% increase in total fatalities, rising from 9 in the prior period to 16 in the current period. This indicates a notable increase in the severity of crash outcomes.
9,606
▲ 0.8%was 9,528
Total Crash Events
16
▲ 77.8%was 9
Persons Killed
2,454
▲ 8.6%was 2,259
Persons Injured
3,008
▲ 1.1%was 2,974
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (16) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (14) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 34 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash numbers in Chicago remained relatively stable year-over-year, with a minor increase of 0.82% in total crashes. However, the severity of these incidents escalated considerably, as total fatalities rose by 77.78% and total injuries increased by 8.63%. This suggests that while crash frequency saw a modest change, the impact on human life and well-being intensified.
3,008
Hit-and-Run Crashes — July 2024
▲ 1.1% vs prior (2,974)
Hit-and-run crashes increased slightly by 1.14% year-over-year, rising from 2974 in July 2023 to 3008 in July 2024. The hit-and-run rate also saw a minor increase, moving from 31.2% of total crashes in the prior period to 31.3% in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
6
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
10
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
233
Pedestrians Injured
206
Cyclists Injured
2,008
Motorists Injured
7
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes shifted notably, with the peak day moving from Saturday in July 2023 (1594 crashes) to Wednesday in July 2024 (1663 crashes). Crashes on Wednesdays increased by 38.35%, while Saturday crashes decreased by 17.38% year-over-year. The peak hour for crashes remained consistently at 4 PM for both periods.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The distribution of crash severity showed a concerning increase in fatal outcomes, with fatal crashes rising by 75% from 8 to 14, though the fatal rate remained 0.1% of total crashes. Serious injury crashes decreased by 15.34% (from 189 to 160), while minor injury crashes increased by 4.39% (from 912 to 952). Additionally, possible injury crashes saw a significant 34.35% increase, rising from 460 to 618.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 14 fatal crash events resulted in 16 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Several contributing factors saw notable shifts in crash counts year-over-year. 'IMPROPER LANE USAGE' crashes increased by 34.94% (from 249 to 336), and crashes attributed to 'UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL/DRUGS' increased by 43.33% (from 30 to 43). Conversely, crashes related to 'IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING' decreased by 7.01% (from 585 to 544), and crashes linked to 'WEATHER' as a factor decreased by 30.34% (from 89 to 62).
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased by 5.88% (from 7724 to 8178), while those in rainy conditions decreased by 29.69% (from 832 to 585). Similarly, crashes on dry road surfaces increased by 6.23% (from 7256 to 7708), contrasting with a 29.21% decrease in crashes on wet road surfaces (from 1027 to 727). Crashes occurring in complete darkness increased by 26.87% (from 268 to 340).
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes slightly decreased by 1.19% year-over-year. There was an 11.24% increase in bicycle-involved crashes (from 267 to 297) and a 12.03% increase in pedestrian-involved crashes (from 241 to 270). The top vehicle makes involved remained consistent, with Toyota, Chevrolet, and Ford holding the top three positions in both periods, though Nissan dropped from fourth to fifth while Honda rose from fifth to fourth.
Top Vehicle Makes (19,563 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,209 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 (20,703 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed limit zone increased by 2.37% (from 6959 to 7124), with a concerning 100% rise in fatal crashes within this zone (from 5 to 10). Crashes in the 25 mph zone increased by 5.21% (from 633 to 666), and this zone saw an increase from 0 to 1 fatal crash. Conversely, crashes in the 10 mph zone decreased by 16.67% (from 270 to 225), while still recording 1 fatal crash in both periods.
Fatal crashes by zone: 10 mph: 1 of 225 (0.444%) · 25 mph: 1 of 666 (0.15%) · 30 mph: 10 of 7,124 (0.14%) · 40 mph: 1 of 88 (1.136%) · 45 mph: 1 of 67 (1.493%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · 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: 2024-07-01 through 2024-07-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-07-01 through 2024-07-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,606
- Total persons involved: 21,166
- Total vehicles involved: 19,563
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-2024-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: 2024-07-01 – 2024-07-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved