ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · MAY 2025
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-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
10,104 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
MAY 2025
In May 2025, Chicago recorded 10,104 traffic crashes, a decrease from the 10,742 crashes reported in May 2024, representing a 5.94% reduction. The most significant year-over-year shift was a substantial 62.5% decrease in total fatalities, from 16 in May 2024 to 6 in May 2025.
10,104
▼ -5.9%was 10,742
Total Crash Events
6
▼ -62.5%was 16
Persons Killed
2,237
▼ -11.2%was 2,519
Persons Injured
3,000
▼ -7.0%was 3,225
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (6) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 24 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, traffic crashes in Chicago showed a downward trend year-over-year, with a 5.94% decrease in total crashes, falling from 10,742 in May 2024 to 10,104 in May 2025. This period also saw a notable reduction in severe outcomes, with total fatalities decreasing by 62.5% and total injuries decreasing by 11.19%.
3,000
Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2025
▼ -7.0% vs prior (3,225)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased by 6.98% year-over-year, falling from 3,225 incidents in May 2024 to 3,000 in May 2025. Concurrently, the hit-and-run rate experienced a slight decline, moving from 30% of all crashes in May 2024 to 29.7% in May 2025, indicating a marginal improvement in this metric.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
225
Pedestrians Injured
159
Cyclists Injured
1,841
Motorists Injured
12
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · 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 May 2024 (1,916 crashes) and May 2025 (1,918 crashes), showing a stable pattern. However, the peak hour for crashes shifted from 3 p.m. in May 2024 (912 crashes) to 4 p.m. in May 2025 (893 crashes). Notably, Wednesday saw a substantial decrease in crashes, dropping from 1,799 in May 2024 to 1,360 in May 2025.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes decreased significantly by 57.14%, from 14 in May 2024 to 6 in May 2025, bringing the fatal crash rate down from 0.13% to 0.06%. Total injuries also saw a reduction of 11.19%, decreasing from 2,519 to 2,237. Specifically, serious injury crashes (severity A) decreased by 35.4%, from 175 to 113, and minor injury crashes (severity B) decreased by 12.5%, from 981 to 858.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top three contributing factors remained consistent year-over-year: Failing to Yield Right-of-Way, Following Too Closely, and Improper Overtaking/Passing. Failing to Yield Right-of-Way crashes increased by 4.0%, from 1,228 in May 2024 to 1,277 in May 2025. Conversely, crashes due to Following Too Closely decreased by 4.8% (from 960 to 914), and Improper Overtaking/Passing decreased by 6.25% (from 640 to 600). A notable increase of 64% was observed in crashes attributed to 'Under the Influence of Alcohol/Drugs', rising from 25 to 41.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The majority of crashes in both periods occurred under clear weather, daylight, and dry road conditions. Crashes under clear weather decreased by 5.87% (from 8,773 to 8,258), and those on dry road surfaces decreased by 4.02% (from 8,138 to 7,811). Crashes on wet road surfaces saw a significant 17.97% decrease, falling from 1,191 to 977. Conversely, crashes occurring in cloudy/overcast conditions increased by 31.0%, from 271 to 355.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by 5.81%, from 21,866 in May 2024 to 20,596 in May 2025. This reduction was consistent across various vehicle types, with driver-involved vehicles decreasing by 6.14% (from 18,420 to 17,289), pedestrian-involved vehicles by 14.73% (from 319 to 272), and bicycle-involved vehicles by 9.68% (from 248 to 224). The top vehicle makes involved in crashes, such as Toyota, Chevrolet, and Ford, maintained their top three positions, all experiencing a decrease in involvement counts year-over-year.
Top Vehicle Makes (20,596 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,320 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 (21,875 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 30 mph speed zone continued to account for the highest number of crashes in both periods, with 7,544 crashes in May 2025 and 7,954 in May 2024. This zone saw a 50% decrease in fatalities, from 10 in May 2024 to 4 in May 2025, with its fatal rate dropping from 0.126% to 0.053%. While the 35 mph zone recorded one fatality in May 2025 where there were none in May 2024, higher speed zones (40 mph, 45 mph, and 55 mph) saw their fatality counts drop to zero in May 2025, compared to a combined total of 4 fatalities in May 2024.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 717 (0.139%) · 30 mph: 4 of 7,544 (0.053%) · 35 mph: 1 of 499 (0.2%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · 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: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 10,104
- Total persons involved: 22,293
- Total vehicles involved: 20,596
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-2025-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: 2025-05-01 – 2025-05-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved