ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · NOVEMBER 2018
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/november-2018-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,474 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
NOVEMBER 2018
Total crashes in November 2018 were 9,474, a slight decrease from 9,515 crashes in November 2017, representing a 0.43% reduction. The most notable shift was a significant decrease in total fatalities, falling from 13 to 5 year-over-year.
9,474
▼ -0.4%was 9,515
Total Crash Events
5
▼ -61.5%was 13
Persons Killed
1,743
▼ -3.0%was 1,797
Persons Injured
2,514
▲ 2.8%was 2,446
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (5) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (4) 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 · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, total crashes in November saw a slight decrease of 41 incidents, moving from 9,515 in 2017 to 9,474 in 2018. This represents a minor reduction of 0.43% year-over-year, indicating a relatively stable crash volume.
2,514
Hit-and-Run Crashes — November 2018
▲ 2.8% vs prior (2,446)
Hit-and-run crashes increased from 2,446 in November 2017 to 2,514 in November 2018, an increase of 68 incidents. The hit-and-run rate also rose from 25.7% to 26.5% of all crashes year-over-year.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
2
Motorists Killed
240
Pedestrians Injured
48
Cyclists Injured
1,455
Motorists Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · 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 Wednesday in November 2017 (1,676 crashes) to Friday in November 2018 (1,701 crashes). The peak hour remained 5 PM for both periods, though the count slightly decreased from 754 crashes in 2017 to 740 crashes in 2018.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatalities decreased significantly from 13 in November 2017 to 5 in November 2018, a 61.54% reduction. Total injuries also saw a decrease, falling from 1,797 to 1,743, a 3.01% decline. The proportion of fatal crashes decreased from 0.1% to 0% of total crashes year-over-year.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 4 fatal crash events resulted in 5 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Failing to Yield Right-of-Way decreased by 109 incidents, from 1,229 to 1,120, a decline of 8.87%. Following Too Closely also saw a decrease of 134 incidents, from 1,137 to 1,003, an 11.79% reduction. Conversely, Improper Backing increased by 43 incidents, from 368 to 411, an 11.68% rise.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
There was a notable shift in weather conditions, with crashes during rain decreasing from 1,671 to 977, while crashes during snow significantly increased from 290 to 973. Correspondingly, crashes on dry road surfaces decreased from 6,551 to 5,932, while those on snow or slush increased from 222 to 744.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased slightly from 19,395 in November 2017 to 19,172 in November 2018. Chevrolet surpassed Toyota as the top vehicle make involved, with its count increasing from 2,152 to 2,187, while Toyota's count decreased from 2,247 to 2,049.
Top Vehicle Makes (19,172 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Vehicle unit records
5,956 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 (20,788 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Fatal crashes at the 30 MPH speed limit decreased from 8 in November 2017 to 2 in November 2018. Crashes at the 35 MPH limit saw fatalities drop from 3 to 0, while crashes at 25 MPH saw an increase in fatalities from 1 to 2.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 542 (0.369%) · 30 mph: 2 of 7,031 (0.028%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · 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: 2018-11-01 through 2018-11-30
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-11-01 through 2018-11-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,474
- Total persons involved: 21,160
- Total vehicles involved: 19,172
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/november-2018-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: 2018-11-01 – 2018-11-30
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved