ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · OCTOBER 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/october-2019-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,938 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
OCTOBER 2019
In October 2019, Chicago experienced 9,938 total crashes, a decrease of 4.46% from the 10,402 crashes reported in October 2018. The most notable shift was a significant 35.71% reduction in total fatalities, dropping from 14 to 9 year-over-year. Despite this, total injuries increased by 4.5%, rising from 2,022 to 2,113.
9,938
▼ -4.5%was 10,402
Total Crash Events
9
▼ -35.7%was 14
Persons Killed
2,113
▲ 4.5%was 2,022
Persons Injured
2,597
▼ -3.7%was 2,696
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (9) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (8) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 26 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Chicago showed a declining trend, with total crashes decreasing by 464, or 4.46%, from October 2018 to October 2019. Fatalities also saw a substantial decrease of 35.71%, falling from 14 to 9. However, total injuries increased by 91, representing a 4.5% rise.
2,597
Hit-and-Run Crashes — October 2019
▼ -3.7% vs prior (2,696)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased by 99, from 2,696 in October 2018 to 2,597 in October 2019. Despite this reduction in count, the hit-and-run rate slightly increased from 25.9% to 26.1%. This indicates that hit-and-run incidents constituted a marginally larger proportion of overall crashes in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
7
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
328
Pedestrians Injured
141
Cyclists Injured
1,641
Motorists Injured
3
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · 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 Wednesday in October 2018 (1,787 crashes) to Thursday in October 2019 (1,709 crashes). The peak hour remained 4 p.m. in both periods, although the number of crashes at this hour decreased from 847 in the prior period to 755 in the current period.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The number of fatal crashes decreased from 11 in October 2018 to 8 in October 2019, leading to a drop in the fatal crash rate from 0.11% to 0.08%. Concurrently, serious injuries increased from 187 to 198, and minor injuries rose from 809 to 854. The proportion of 'No Injury' crashes slightly decreased from 85.6% to 84.3% year-over-year.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 8 fatal crash events resulted in 9 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Failing to Yield Right-of-Way remained the top contributing factor, decreasing by 95 crashes (7.6%) from 1,253 to 1,158. Improper Overtaking/Passing saw a notable reduction of 112 crashes (20.4%), falling from 549 to 437. Conversely, 'Failing to Reduce Speed to Avoid Crash' saw a slight increase of 3 crashes, rising from 481 to 484.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased by 1,339, from 8,328 in October 2018 to 6,989 in October 2019. Conversely, crashes during rainy conditions increased by 604, from 1,156 to 1,760, and snow-related crashes saw a substantial increase from 6 to 308. Road surface conditions reflected this, with wet surface crashes increasing by 662 and snow/slush crashes increasing by 170.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by 729, from 21,188 in October 2018 to 20,459 in October 2019. Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford remained the top three most common vehicle makes involved in crashes, though each saw a decrease in their respective counts. No significant shifts in age group representation were observed.
Top Vehicle Makes (20,459 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,269 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 (22,050 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed zone decreased by 285, from 7,744 to 7,459, and fatalities in this zone decreased from 10 to 5. In contrast, crashes in the 35 mph speed zone decreased by 56, from 757 to 701, but fatalities in this zone increased from 0 to 3. This resulted in a significant increase in the fatal rate for the 35 mph zone, from 0% to 0.428%.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 5 of 7,459 (0.067%) · 35 mph: 3 of 701 (0.428%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · 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: 2019-10-01 through 2019-10-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2019-10-01 through 2019-10-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,938
- Total persons involved: 22,418
- Total vehicles involved: 20,459
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/october-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: 2019-10-01 – 2019-10-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved