ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · BATON ROUGE, LA · AUGUST 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/louisiana/baton-rouge/august-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,351 CRASHES IN
BATON ROUGE, LA
AUGUST 2023
In August 2023, Baton Rouge recorded 1,351 vehicle crashes, a significant increase from the 276 crashes reported in August 2022. This represents a 389.5% year-over-year rise in total collisions. The most notable shift was this dramatic surge in total crashes and related injuries, which rose from 203 to 1,074, even as fatalities decreased from 4 to 1.
1,351
▲ 389.5%was 276
Total Crash Events
1
▼ -75.0%was 4
Fatal Crashes
1,074
▲ 429.1%was 203
Injury Crashes
297
▲ 312.5%was 72
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons.
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data for August indicates a sharp upward trend compared to the previous year. Total crashes increased by 389.5%, from 276 in August 2022 to 1,351 in August 2023. Similarly, total injuries rose from 203 to 1,074, while fatalities decreased from 4 to 1.
297
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2023
▲ 312.5% vs prior (72)
The number of hit-and-run incidents increased substantially, rising from 72 in August 2022 to 297 in August 2023. However, despite this large increase in the absolute count, the hit-and-run rate as a percentage of total crashes decreased. The rate fell from 26.1% in the prior period to 22.0% in the current period, indicating that hit-and-runs grew at a slower pace than other crash types.
When Crashes Happen
The temporal pattern of crashes shifted year-over-year. In August 2023, Thursday was the peak day for crashes with 248 incidents, followed by Friday with 229. This contrasts with August 2022, when Tuesday was the busiest day with 85 crashes. In both periods, Sunday saw the fewest crashes, with 114 in the current period and 11 in the prior.
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes increased dramatically, the severity profile shifted. The number of fatal crashes decreased from 4 in August 2022 to 1 in August 2023, with the fatal crash share dropping from 1.4% to 0.1% of all crashes. Conversely, the proportion of crashes resulting in an injury increased from 73.6% (203 crashes) in the prior period to 79.5% (1,074 crashes) in the current period.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Violations remained the top contributing factor in both periods, with the count of such crashes rising from 214 in August 2022 to 1,014 in August 2023, a 374% increase in count. The second-ranked factor, 'Movement prior to crash,' also saw a significant increase in incidents, from 46 to 272. The top two contributing factors maintained their respective rankings year-over-year, though their share of total crashes shifted slightly, with Violations accounting for 75.1% of factors in 2023 compared to 77.5% in 2022.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes in August 2023 predominantly occurred in clear conditions and on dry roads, with these proportions increasing compared to the prior year. Crashes on dry roads accounted for 96.2% of the total (1,300 incidents) in the current period, up from 80.4% (222 incidents) in August 2022. Similarly, daylight crashes made up 83.3% of the total in 2023 versus 78.6% in 2022. Consequently, the share of crashes occurring in adverse conditions like rain or on wet roads was substantially lower in August 2023.
Weather
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Data Sources & Methodology
Primary Data Source
All crash data in this report is sourced from Baton Rouge Crash Data, 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: 2023-08-01 through 2023-08-31
- Report generated: June 19, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-08-01 through 2023-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Baton Rouge, LA
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,351
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). "Baton Rouge, LA Crash Intelligence Report: August 2023." Published June 19, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31. Data source: Baton Rouge Crash Data, Socrata Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/louisiana/baton-rouge/august-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: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata
Period: 2023-08-01 – 2023-08-31
Generated: June 19, 2026 · All rights reserved