ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · BATON ROUGE, LA · MAY 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/may-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,245 CRASHES IN
BATON ROUGE, LA
MAY 2023
In May 2023, Baton Rouge recorded 1,245 traffic crashes, a significant increase from the 3 crashes reported in May 2022. This represents a substantial year-over-year rise in reported incidents. The most notable shift is this dramatic increase in total crash volume, which was accompanied by a rise in injuries from 2 to 963 and the appearance of two fatal crashes where none were recorded in the prior year's period.
1,245
▲ 41400.0%was 3
Total Crash Events
2
Fatal Crashes
963
▲ 48050.0%was 2
Injury Crashes
305
▲ 30400.0%was 1
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 · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data for May shows a significant upward trend compared to the same month last year. Total reported crashes increased from 3 in May 2022 to 1,245 in May 2023. Correspondingly, total injuries rose from 2 to 963, and fatalities increased from 0 to 2, indicating a substantial rise in both crash frequency and severity.
305
Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2023
▲ 30400.0% vs prior (1)
The absolute number of hit-and-run crashes increased substantially, rising from 1 incident in May 2022 to 305 in May 2023. However, the hit-and-run rate as a proportion of total crashes decreased. The rate fell from 33.3% in the prior period to 24.5% in the current period, indicating that hit-and-runs comprised a smaller share of the much larger crash total.
When Crashes Happen
The temporal distribution of crashes changed significantly year-over-year, reflecting the large increase in crash volume. In May 2022, crashes were only recorded on Thursday (1) and Friday (2), with Friday being the peak day. In contrast, May 2023 saw crashes every day of the week, with Tuesday becoming the new peak day with 227 crashes, followed by Wednesday with 219.
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Crash Severity Breakdown
Crash severity was higher in May 2023 compared to the prior year. Two fatal crashes occurred, resulting in a fatal crash rate of 0.16%, up from zero fatal crashes in May 2022. The proportion of crashes involving an injury also increased, rising from 66.7% of incidents in the prior period to 77.3% in the current period. Consequently, the share of non-injury crashes decreased from 33.3% to 22.5% year-over-year.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · 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 · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The ranking of top contributing factors changed between the two periods. In May 2023, 'Violations' was the leading factor, cited in 961 crashes, a significant increase from just 1 crash in May 2022. 'Movement prior to crash,' the top factor in the prior period with 2 crashes, was the second-most cited factor in May 2023 with 244 crashes. The variety of reported factors also expanded, with categories like 'Driver condition' appearing in 16 crashes in the current period but not in the prior.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Weather
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Baton Rouge Crash Data · Socrata Open Data · 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · 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: 2023-05-01 through 2023-05-31
- Report generated: June 19, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-05-01 through 2023-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Baton Rouge, LA
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,245
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: May 2023." Published June 19, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31. Data source: Baton Rouge Crash Data, Socrata Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/louisiana/baton-rouge/may-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: 2023-05-01 – 2023-05-31
Generated: June 19, 2026 · All rights reserved