ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · OCTOBER 2023
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-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
10,098 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
OCTOBER 2023
Total crashes in October 2023 were 10098, an increase of 1.9% compared to 9910 crashes in October 2022. Fatalities saw a significant increase, rising by 54.5% from 11 in the prior period to 17 in the current period. Total injuries also increased by 14.2%, from 2048 to 2338 year-over-year. The most notable year-over-year shift was the substantial increase in total fatalities.
10,098
▲ 1.9%was 9,910
Total Crash Events
17
▲ 54.5%was 11
Persons Killed
2,338
▲ 14.2%was 2,048
Persons Injured
3,085
▼ -4.1%was 3,216
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (17) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (16) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 28 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash data for October 2023 indicates an upward trend in incidents compared to October 2022. Total crashes increased by 1.9%, from 9910 to 10098. Fatalities rose by 54.5%, from 11 to 17, and total injuries increased by 14.2%, from 2048 to 2338.
3,085
Hit-and-Run Crashes — October 2023
▼ -4.1% vs prior (3,216)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 3216 in October 2022 to 3085 in October 2023, representing a reduction of 131 incidents. The hit-and-run rate also saw a decline, moving from 32.5% of total crashes in the prior period to 30.6% in the current period. This indicates a downward trend in the proportion of crashes involving a hit-and-run.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
8
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
8
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
271
Pedestrians Injured
163
Cyclists Injured
1,892
Motorists Injured
12
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal distribution of crashes showed a shift in the peak day for crashes, moving from Saturday (1621 crashes) in October 2022 to Tuesday (1755 crashes) in October 2023. While the peak hour remained 3 PM in both periods, the number of crashes at this hour increased from 772 to 881. Crashes on Saturdays decreased by 349, while crashes on Tuesdays increased by 344 year-over-year.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate increased from 0.1% in October 2022 to 0.16% in October 2023. Serious injury crashes decreased from 190 to 165, while possible injury crashes increased from 420 to 587. Minor injury crashes remained relatively stable, with 903 in the prior period and 902 in the current period.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 16 fatal crash events resulted in 17 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY' increased by 44 crashes (3.9% change in count), from 1125 to 1169. 'FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY' decreased by 84 crashes (9.5% change in count), from 880 to 796. 'IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING' saw an increase of 64 crashes (12.5% change in count), rising from 514 to 578.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
There was a notable shift in crash conditions, with crashes occurring in 'RAIN' increasing from 1156 to 1682, and those in 'SNOW' increasing from 2 to 157. Correspondingly, crashes under 'CLEAR' weather conditions decreased from 7824 to 6855. On road surfaces, crashes on 'DRY' roads decreased from 7453 to 6441, while those on 'WET' surfaces increased from 1357 to 2167.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 20205 to 20594 year-over-year. Toyota became the top vehicle make involved, with 2446 incidents, surpassing Chevrolet which had 2244 incidents. Bicycle involvement in crashes saw a significant increase, rising from 164 in October 2022 to 231 in October 2023.
Top Vehicle Makes (20,594 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Vehicle unit records
6,648 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 (21,839 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Fatalities in 30 mph zones increased from 7 to 11, with the fatal crash percentage rising from 0.097% to 0.147%. Crashes in 40 mph zones saw an increase in fatalities from 0 to 3, and 15 mph zones also recorded a fatality, up from 0 to 1. Conversely, 25 mph zones experienced a decrease in fatalities from 2 to 0.
Fatal crashes by zone: 15 mph: 1 of 329 (0.304%) · 30 mph: 11 of 7,489 (0.147%) · 35 mph: 1 of 743 (0.135%) · 40 mph: 3 of 96 (3.125%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · 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: 2023-10-01 through 2023-10-31
- Report generated: June 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-10-01 through 2023-10-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 10,098
- Total persons involved: 22,319
- Total vehicles involved: 20,594
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-2023-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: 2023-10-01 – 2023-10-31
Generated: June 1, 2026 · All rights reserved