ThatCarHitMe.com
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YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · MARCH 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/march-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,896 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
MARCH 2023
In March 2023, Chicago recorded 8,896 total crashes, an increase of 4.02% compared to the 8,552 crashes in March 2022. Total fatalities saw a notable rise of 36.36%, from 11 to 15, indicating a concerning trend in crash outcomes. Total injuries also increased by 6.61% year-over-year, from 1,603 to 1,709.
8,896
▲ 4.0%was 8,552
Total Crash Events
15
▲ 36.4%was 11
Persons Killed
1,709
▲ 6.6%was 1,603
Persons Injured
2,880
▲ 0.6%was 2,863
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (15) 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. 21 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash activity in Chicago increased year-over-year, with total crashes rising by 4.02% from 8,552 to 8,896. This period also saw a significant increase in fatalities, up 36.36% from 11 to 15, and a 6.61% rise in total injuries, from 1,603 to 1,709. The data indicates an upward trend in both crash frequency and severity outcomes.
2,880
Hit-and-Run Crashes — March 2023
▲ 0.6% vs prior (2,863)
Hit-and-run crashes increased slightly by 0.59% in count, from 2,863 in March 2022 to 2,880 in March 2023. However, the hit-and-run rate decreased by 1.1 percentage points, from 33.5% to 32.4% of total crashes. This indicates that while the absolute number of hit-and-run incidents rose slightly, their proportion relative to all crashes decreased.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
4
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
10
Motorists Killed
1
Other Killed
190
Pedestrians Injured
46
Cyclists Injured
1,470
Motorists Injured
3
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · 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 Thursday in March 2022 (1,384 crashes) to Friday in March 2023 (1,609 crashes), representing a 23.0% increase in crashes on Fridays. The peak hour for crashes remained consistently at 3 p.m. for both periods, with a slight increase from 697 crashes in March 2022 to 718 crashes in March 2023. Crashes on Mondays and Thursdays also saw increases of 8.4% and 5.0% respectively.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes increased significantly by 55.56%, from 9 in March 2022 to 14 in March 2023, with the fatal crash rate rising from 0.11% to 0.16%. While serious injury crashes decreased in count from 152 to 136, minor injury crashes rose from 647 to 692, and possible injury crashes increased from 367 to 372. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injury remained stable at 86.1% for both periods.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 14 fatal crash events resulted in 15 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'DRIVING SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE' saw the largest percentage increase in count, rising by 14.5% from 317 to 363 crashes. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' and 'IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING' also increased by 11.0% (from 663 to 736) and 10.7% (from 448 to 496) respectively. 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' remained the most frequent factor, increasing by 2.3% in count from 945 to 967 crashes, while 'FAILING TO REDUCE SPEED TO AVOID CRASH' decreased slightly by 1.2% from 338 to 334 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased by 1.8% from 6,158 to 6,267, remaining the most common weather condition. Crashes during rainy conditions decreased by 24.0% (from 1,320 to 1,003), while those in cloudy/overcast conditions increased by 56.3% (from 245 to 383). The number of crashes on dry road surfaces increased by 2.1% (from 5,793 to 5,917), contrasting with an 8.0% decrease in crashes on wet surfaces (from 1,739 to 1,599).
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 4.08%, from 17,370 to 18,079 year-over-year. The age group 65 and older saw the largest percentage increase in involvement, rising by 17.26% from 921 to 1,080 persons, while the 16-20 age group decreased by 9.0% from 937 to 853 persons. TOYOTA became the most frequently involved vehicle make, increasing its count by 9.9% from 1,830 to 2,011, surpassing CHEVROLET which saw a minor increase of 0.26% from 1,923 to 1,928.
Top Vehicle Makes (18,079 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
5,965 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 (19,035 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The majority of crashes in both periods occurred in 30 mph speed zones, with these crashes increasing by 4.46% from 6,326 to 6,608. Fatal crashes in 30 mph zones increased by 50%, from 6 to 9, contributing to the overall rise in fatalities. Additionally, fatal crashes in 20 mph zones increased from 0 to 2, and in 25 mph zones from 0 to 1.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 2 of 385 (0.519%) · 25 mph: 1 of 614 (0.163%) · 30 mph: 9 of 6,608 (0.136%) · 35 mph: 1 of 540 (0.185%) · 40 mph: 1 of 90 (1.111%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · 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: 2023-03-01 through 2023-03-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-03-01 through 2023-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,896
- Total persons involved: 19,415
- Total vehicles involved: 18,079
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-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: 2023-03-01 – 2023-03-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved