ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · MARCH 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/march-2020-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
6,672 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
MARCH 2020
In March 2020, Chicago experienced 6672 total crashes, a significant decrease from the 9748 crashes recorded in March 2019, representing a 31.55% reduction. Fatalities saw an even sharper decline, dropping by 70% from 10 in March 2019 to 3 in March 2020. This indicates a substantial year-over-year improvement in traffic safety outcomes.
6,672
▼ -31.6%was 9,748
Total Crash Events
3
▼ -70.0%was 10
Persons Killed
1,472
▼ -14.0%was 1,712
Persons Injured
1,976
▼ -27.5%was 2,725
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (3) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 22 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash data for March 2020 shows a clear downward trend compared to March 2019, with total crashes decreasing by 31.55% from 9748 to 6672. This reduction extends to fatalities, which fell by 70% from 10 to 3, and total injuries, which decreased by 13.96% from 1712 to 1472. The data indicates a notable improvement in traffic safety during the current period.
1,976
Hit-and-Run Crashes — March 2020
▼ -27.5% vs prior (2,725)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased by 749 incidents, from 2725 in March 2019 to 1976 in March 2020, a 27.48% reduction. However, the hit-and-run rate, which is the proportion of total crashes that were hit-and-run, slightly increased from 28% in March 2019 to 29.6% in March 2020. This indicates that while the absolute number of hit-and-runs fell, they constituted a larger share of the overall reduced crash total.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
2
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
163
Pedestrians Injured
35
Cyclists Injured
1,273
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · 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 significantly year-over-year. In March 2020, the peak day for crashes was Monday with 1183 incidents, whereas in March 2019, Friday was the peak day with 1796 crashes. Similarly, the peak hour changed from 3 PM in March 2019 (795 crashes) to 4 PM in March 2020 (562 crashes), suggesting a shift in the busiest times for traffic incidents.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes decreased from 8 in March 2019 to 3 in March 2020, resulting in a lower fatal crash rate of 0.04% compared to 0.08% in the prior year. While the total number of serious injuries decreased from 158 to 134, their proportion of total crashes slightly increased from 1.6% to 2%. Minor injuries also saw a decrease in count from 675 to 529, but their share of total crashes rose from 6.9% to 7.9%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factors all saw a decrease in incident counts year-over-year. "Failing to Yield Right-of-Way" decreased by 398 incidents, from 1139 to 741, representing a 34.94% reduction in count. "Following Too Closely" incidents dropped by 382, from 970 to 588, a 39.38% decrease in count. Notably, "Exceeding Authorized Speed Limit" was a factor in 83 crashes in March 2019 but was not reported in March 2020.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased by 2820 incidents, from 8039 to 5219, a 35.08% reduction. Crashes in daylight conditions also saw a significant decrease, falling by 2139 incidents from 6467 to 4328, a 33.07% reduction. While the counts of crashes in adverse conditions like rain and wet road surfaces also decreased, their proportions relative to total crashes remained broadly similar.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by 30.32%, from 19758 in March 2019 to 13768 in March 2020. Chevrolet remained the top vehicle make involved in crashes, though its count decreased from 2336 to 1651. All age groups saw a decrease in person counts involved in crashes, with the 0-15 age group experiencing the largest percentage decrease of 46.7% (from 818 to 436 persons).
Top Vehicle Makes (13,768 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
4,276 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 (14,548 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes occurring in 30 mph speed limit zones decreased from 7118 to 4797, a 32.59% reduction in count. The number of fatal crashes in 30 mph zones decreased from 7 to 2, leading to a lower fatal crash rate of 0.042% compared to 0.098% in the prior period. For 35 mph zones, crashes decreased from 765 to 454, and the fatal crash count increased from 0 to 1, raising the fatal crash rate to 0.22% in March 2020.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 2 of 4,797 (0.042%) · 35 mph: 1 of 454 (0.22%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · 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: 2020-03-01 through 2020-03-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-03-01 through 2020-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 6,672
- Total persons involved: 14,787
- Total vehicles involved: 13,768
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/march-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: 2020-03-01 – 2020-03-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved