ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · MAY 2019
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/may-2019-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
10,709 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
MAY 2019
In May 2019, Chicago recorded 10,709 total crashes, a slight decrease from 10,714 crashes in May 2018, representing a 0.05% reduction. Despite the overall decrease in crashes, fatalities increased by 28.57%, rising from 7 in May 2018 to 9 in May 2019. Total injuries saw a minor decrease of 0.65%, from 2,154 to 2,140.
10,709
▼ -0.0%was 10,714
Total Crash Events
9
▲ 28.6%was 7
Persons Killed
2,140
▼ -0.6%was 2,154
Persons Injured
2,880
▲ 4.3%was 2,761
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (9) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (9) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 20 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, the total number of crashes remained relatively stable year-over-year, with a minor decrease of 5 crashes, or 0.05%. However, fatalities showed an upward trend, increasing by 28.57% from 7 to 9. Injuries decreased slightly by 0.65%, indicating a mixed trend in crash outcomes.
2,880
Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2019
▲ 4.3% vs prior (2,761)
Hit-and-run crashes increased by 119, from 2,761 in May 2018 to 2,880 in May 2019, representing a 4.31% rise in count. The hit-and-run rate also increased from 25.8% to 26.9% year-over-year. This indicates an upward trend in the proportion of crashes classified as hit-and-run.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
6
Motorists Killed
250
Pedestrians Injured
118
Cyclists Injured
1,772
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · 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 May 2018, with 1,847 crashes, to Friday in May 2019, which saw 1,959 crashes. The peak hour for crashes remained consistent at 4 PM for both periods, with 937 crashes in May 2019 compared to 894 in May 2018. This suggests a slight shift in the busiest day for crash incidents.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes increased from 7 in May 2018 to 9 in May 2019, with the fatal crash rate rising from 0.07% to 0.08%. Serious injuries decreased from 216 (2% share) to 188 (1.8% share), and minor injuries also fell from 915 (8.5% share) to 850 (7.9% share). Conversely, crashes with no injuries saw an increase in count from 9,084 to 9,187, and their share of total crashes rose from 84.8% to 85.8%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' saw an increase of 48 crashes, from 1,108 to 1,156, a 4.33% change in count. Factors showing notable decreases include 'IMPROPER BACKING', down by 68 crashes (13.6% change in count), and 'IMPROPER LANE USAGE', which decreased by 118 crashes (23.98% change in count). The factor 'EXCEEDING AUTHORIZED SPEED LIMIT' was reported 73 times in May 2018 but was not present in May 2019 data.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased by 555, from 8,847 in May 2018 to 8,292 in May 2019, with their share dropping from 82.57% to 77.43%. Conversely, crashes in rainy conditions increased by 325, from 1,071 to 1,396, and their share rose from 9.99% to 13.04%. Similarly, wet road surface crashes increased by 527, from 1,409 to 1,936, increasing their share from 13.15% to 18.08%.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased slightly from 21,808 in May 2018 to 21,710 in May 2019, a 0.45% reduction. The age group 0-15 saw a notable decrease in persons involved, dropping by 231 (19.9%) from 1,161 to 930. The number of male persons involved decreased by 593 (4.63%), while non-binary persons involved increased by 92 (5.3%).
Top Vehicle Makes (21,710 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,703 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 (23,700 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed zone decreased by 56, from 8,012 to 7,956, and fatalities in this zone decreased from 7 to 3. In contrast, crashes in the 35 mph zone increased by 18, from 684 to 702, with fatalities in this zone rising from 0 to 3. The 5 mph speed zone also saw an increase in fatalities from 0 to 1, despite a decrease of 53 crashes in that zone.
Fatal crashes by zone: 5 mph: 1 of 57 (1.754%) · 20 mph: 1 of 481 (0.208%) · 30 mph: 3 of 7,956 (0.038%) · 35 mph: 3 of 702 (0.427%) · 45 mph: 1 of 66 (1.515%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · 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: 2019-05-01 through 2019-05-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2019-05-01 through 2019-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 10,709
- Total persons involved: 24,140
- Total vehicles involved: 21,710
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/may-2019-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: 2019-05-01 – 2019-05-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved