ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · MAY 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/may-2020-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
6,548 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
MAY 2020
In May 2020, Chicago recorded 6548 total crashes, a decrease of 38.86% compared to the 10709 crashes in May 2019. Despite this overall reduction in crash volume, total fatalities rose by 55.56%, from 9 in May 2019 to 14 in May 2020. This indicates a notable increase in the severity of crashes during the current period.
6,548
▼ -38.9%was 10,709
Total Crash Events
14
▲ 55.6%was 9
Persons Killed
1,456
▼ -32.0%was 2,140
Persons Injured
2,428
▼ -15.7%was 2,880
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (14) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (11) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 8 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash volume in Chicago decreased significantly year-over-year, with total crashes falling by 38.86% from 10709 in May 2019 to 6548 in May 2020. Despite this reduction, total fatalities increased by 55.56%, from 9 to 14. Total injuries also saw a decrease of 31.96%, dropping from 2140 to 1456.
2,428
Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2020
▼ -15.7% vs prior (2,880)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased by 452, from 2880 in May 2019 to 2428 in May 2020, representing a 15.69% reduction. However, the hit-and-run rate, calculated as a percentage of total crashes, increased significantly by 10.2 percentage points, from 26.9% to 37.1%. This indicates that while the absolute number of hit-and-run incidents fell, they constituted a larger proportion of the overall reduced crash total.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
6
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
8
Motorists Killed
145
Pedestrians Injured
64
Cyclists Injured
1,247
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes remained Friday in both periods, though the number of crashes on Fridays decreased from 1959 in May 2019 to 1190 in May 2020. The peak crash hour shifted from 4 p.m. in May 2019, which had 937 crashes, to 3 p.m. in May 2020, with 538 crashes. This indicates a general reduction in crash frequency across all temporal segments, with a slight shift in the peak hour.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate more than doubled year-over-year, increasing from 0.08% in May 2019 to 0.17% in May 2020. While the proportion of possible injury crashes remained stable at approximately 4%, the share of serious injury crashes increased from 1.8% to 2.3%, and minor injury crashes increased from 7.9% to 9.1%. This indicates a shift towards higher severity outcomes in crashes during the current period.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 11 fatal crash events resulted in 14 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factors, 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way' and 'Following Too Closely', remained the leading causes in both periods, though their counts decreased significantly. 'Failing to Yield Right-of-Way' crashes decreased by 564 (46.04%) from 1225 to 661, and 'Following Too Closely' crashes decreased by 599 (51.82%) from 1156 to 557. 'Failing to Reduce Speed to Avoid Crash' became the third most common factor in May 2020 with 391 crashes, while 'Improper Overtaking/Passing' fell from third in May 2019 (563 crashes) to fourth in May 2020 (272 crashes).
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased by 2920, from 8292 in May 2019 to 5372 in May 2020, representing a 35.21% reduction. Similarly, crashes during daylight hours decreased by 3371, from 8026 to 4655, a 41.99% reduction. Crashes on dry road surfaces also saw a decrease of 2835, from 8013 to 5178, a 35.38% reduction, indicating a proportional decline across all dominant conditions.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by 36.72%, from 21710 in May 2019 to 13738 in May 2020. This reduction was observed across all vehicle types, including driver-involved vehicles (down 40.46%) and pedestrian-involved vehicles (down 37.81%). All age groups experienced a decrease in the number of persons involved in crashes, with the 45-54 age group showing the largest percentage decrease of 49.54%. Chevrolet remained the most frequently involved vehicle make, despite a 22.99% decrease in its crash count from 2374 to 1828. Toyota, the second most involved make in May 2019, saw its involvement drop by 47.67% from 2280 to 1193. The distribution of persons by sex also showed a decrease, with male persons involved down by 38.36% and female persons involved down by 47.66%.
Top Vehicle Makes (13,738 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Vehicle unit records
4,736 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 (14,088 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph zones, the most common speed limit, decreased by 41.84% from 7956 to 4627, yet fatalities in these zones increased from 3 to 8, resulting in a fatal rate increase from 0.038% to 0.173%. Crashes in 25 mph zones decreased by 17.14% from 595 to 493, but fatalities in these zones increased from 0 to 2. Conversely, crashes in 35 mph zones decreased by 28.63% from 702 to 501, and fatalities in these zones decreased from 3 to 1, with the fatal rate falling from 0.427% to 0.2%.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 493 (0.406%) · 30 mph: 8 of 4,627 (0.173%) · 35 mph: 1 of 501 (0.2%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · 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: 2020-05-01 through 2020-05-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-05-01 through 2020-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 6,548
- Total persons involved: 14,397
- Total vehicles involved: 13,738
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-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: 2020-05-01 – 2020-05-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved