Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

9,910 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
OCTOBER 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstOctober 2021

Total crashes in October 2022 were 9,910, a decrease of 3.55% from the 10,275 crashes reported in October 2021. Fatalities saw a notable reduction, dropping by 15.38% from 13 in the prior year to 11 in the current period. Overall injuries also decreased by 3.17% year-over-year.

9,910

-3.6%was 10,275

Total Crash Events

11

-15.4%was 13

Persons Killed

2,048

-3.2%was 2,115

Persons Injured

3,216

-4.3%was 3,359

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (11) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (10) 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 · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend indicates a decrease in crash incidents year-over-year, with total crashes falling from 10,275 in October 2021 to 9,910 in October 2022. This represents a reduction of 365 crashes, or 3.55%.

3,216

Hit-and-Run Crashes — October 2022

-4.3% vs prior (3,359)

Hit-and-run crashes decreased by 143, from 3,359 in October 2021 to 3,216 in October 2022. The hit-and-run rate also saw a slight downward trend, decreasing from 32.7% in the prior period to 32.5% in the current period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

5

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 50.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

6

Motorists Killed

Prior: 8-25.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 00.0%

270

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 24211.6%

112

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 132-15.2%

1,660

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,740-4.6%

6

Other Injured

Prior: 1500.0%

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · 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 Friday in October 2021 (1,978 crashes) to Saturday in October 2022 (1,621 crashes). The peak hour remained consistent at 3 PM in both periods, though the number of crashes at this hour decreased from 839 in October 2021 to 772 in October 2022.

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The fatal crash rate decreased slightly from 0.12% in October 2021 to 0.1% in October 2022, with fatal crashes decreasing from 12 to 10. Serious injury crashes (severity A) increased from 178 to 190, while minor injury crashes (severity B) decreased from 929 to 903.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 10 fatal crash events resulted in 11 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal10fatal crashes0.1%
-16.7%prior 12
Serious Injury190serious injury crashes1.9%
6.7%prior 178
Minor Injury903minor injury crashes9.1%
-2.8%prior 929
Possible Injury420possible injury crashes4.2%
-5.4%prior 444
No Injury8,361no injury crashes84.4%
-3.7%prior 8,684

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The top contributing factor, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY', decreased by 18 crashes, from 1,143 in the prior period to 1,125 in the current period. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' crashes increased by 7, from 873 to 880, while 'IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING' crashes increased by 20, from 494 to 514.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY1,125 (11.4%)-1.6%prior 1,143
FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY880 (8.9%)0.8%prior 873
IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING514 (5.2%)4.0%prior 494
FAILING TO REDUCE SPEED TO AVOID CRASH367 (3.7%)-18.6%prior 451
IMPROPER TURNING/NO SIGNAL331 (3.3%)-0.6%prior 333
DRIVING SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE327 (3.3%)5.1%prior 311
IMPROPER LANE USAGE305 (3.1%)-15.3%prior 360
IMPROPER BACKING296 (3%)-14.5%prior 346
DISREGARDING TRAFFIC SIGNALS187 (1.9%)-19.0%prior 231
OPERATING VEHICLE IN ERRATIC, RECKLESS, CARELESS, NEGLIGENT OR AGGRESSIVE MANNER115 (1.2%)-13.5%prior 133

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased by 863, from 6,961 to 7,824, while crashes during rain decreased by 942, from 2,098 to 1,156. Similarly, crashes on dry road surfaces increased by 653, from 6,800 to 7,453, whereas crashes on wet surfaces decreased by 1,120, from 2,477 to 1,357.

Weather

CLEAR7,824 (84.9%)
12.4%prior 6,961
RAIN1,156 (12.5%)
-44.9%prior 2,098
CLOUDY/OVERCAST174 (1.9%)
-63.9%prior 482
FOG/SMOKE/HAZE34 (0.4%)
325.0%prior 8
OTHER22 (0.2%)
15.8%prior 19
FREEZING RAIN/DRIZZLE7 (0.1%)
-58.8%prior 17
SNOW2 (0.0%)
-66.7%prior 6
BLOWING SNOW1 (0.0%)

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

DAYLIGHT5,975 (64.0%)
-2.0%prior 6,096
DARKNESS, LIGHTED ROAD2,422 (25.9%)
-8.0%prior 2,633
DARKNESS473 (5.1%)
-3.1%prior 488
DUSK313 (3.4%)
-1.3%prior 317
DAWN160 (1.7%)
-20.0%prior 200

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

DRY7,453 (84.3%)
9.6%prior 6,800
WET1,357 (15.4%)
-45.2%prior 2,477
OTHER25 (0.3%)
13.6%prior 22
SNOW OR SLUSH3 (0.0%)
0.0%prior 3
SAND, MUD, DIRT2 (0.0%)
-50.0%prior 4

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 21,028 in October 2021 to 20,205 in October 2022. Chevrolet remained the top vehicle make involved, though its count decreased from 2,431 to 2,161 year-over-year. Pedestrian vehicles involved increased by 30, from 278 to 308.

Top Vehicle Makes (20,205 vehicles)

1
CHEVROLET2,161 (10.7%)
-11.1%prior 2,431
2
TOYOTA2,106 (10.4%)
-0.3%prior 2,113
3
FORD1,974 (9.8%)
-6.0%prior 2,101
4
NISSAN1,521 (7.5%)
-8.6%prior 1,665
5
HONDA1,499 (7.4%)
-0.7%prior 1,510
6
HYUNDAI945 (4.7%)
4.3%prior 906
7
JEEP854 (4.2%)
-7.8%prior 926
8
DODGE812 (4%)
-4.4%prior 849
9
KIA649 (3.2%)
13.7%prior 571
10
GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION (GMC)387 (1.9%)
9.9%prior 352

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Vehicle unit records

6,751 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 (21,224 persons with recorded sex)

Male10,995 (51.8%)
-1.6%prior 11,177
Female8,073 (38.0%)
-6.9%prior 8,668
Non-Binary2,156 (10.2%)
-2.8%prior 2,217

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

The majority of crashes continued to occur in the 30 mph speed zone, although the count decreased by 437, from 7,675 to 7,238, and associated fatalities dropped from 11 to 7. Crashes in the 25 mph zone saw a slight decrease from 673 to 672, but fatalities in this zone increased from 1 to 2.

Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 672 (0.298%) · 30 mph: 7 of 7,238 (0.097%) · 35 mph: 1 of 690 (0.145%)

Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · 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: 2022-10-01 through 2022-10-31
  • Report generated: June 1, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-10-01 through 2022-10-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
  • Total crash records analyzed: 9,910
  • Total persons involved: 21,630
  • Total vehicles involved: 20,205

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-2022-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

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Chicago, IL Year-over-Year Crash Report — October 2022 vs October 2021 | ThatCarHitMe.com