Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

14,955 CRASHES IN
COLUMBUS, OH
2022

All metrics benchmarked against2021

Total crashes in Columbus increased by 6.14%, from 14,090 in 2021 to 14,955 in 2022. Despite this rise in overall crash incidents, total fatalities decreased from 101 to 97, a 3.96% reduction. The most notable shift was the overall increase in total crashes while the number of persons killed and injured declined.

14,955

▲ 6.1%was 14,090

Total Crash Events

▼ -4.0%was 101

Persons Killed

7,714

▼ -5.1%was 8,126

Persons Injured

5,016

▼ -4.6%was 5,259

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (97) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (92) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash incidents in Columbus showed an upward trend, with total crashes increasing by 6.14% year-over-year. However, total fatalities decreased by 3.96%, from 101 in 2021 to 97 in 2022. Similarly, total injuries saw a 5.07% decrease, falling from 8,126 in 2021 to 7,714 in 2022.

5,016

Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2022

▼ -4.6% vs prior (5,259)

The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased by 4.62%, falling from 5,259 in 2021 to 5,016 in 2022. This led to a reduction in the hit-and-run rate from 37.3% of all crashes in 2021 to 33.5% in 2022, indicating a downward trend.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 29↓-6.9%

Motorists Killed

Prior: 72↓-2.8%

366

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 334↑9.6%

7,348

Motorists Injured

Prior: 7,792↓-5.7%

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes remained Friday in both years, with 2,316 crashes in 2021 and 2,455 in 2022. The peak crash hour shifted from 3 p.m. in 2021, with 1,036 crashes, to 5 p.m. in 2022, recording 1,156 crashes. Monthly crash counts in 2022 showed a higher peak in August (1,651 crashes) compared to 2021's peak in May (1,271 crashes).

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The fatal crash rate decreased from 0.7% of total crashes in 2021 to 0.6% in 2022. Crashes resulting in serious injuries also decreased proportionally from 3.1% to 2.4%, and minor injury crashes fell from 24.5% to 20.7%. Conversely, the proportion of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 58.6% in 2021 to 63.5% in 2022.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 92 fatal crash events resulted in 97 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal92fatal crashes0.6%

↓-2.1%prior 94

Serious Injury365serious injury crashes2.4%

↓-15.7%prior 433

Minor Injury3,103minor injury crashes20.7%

↓-10.1%prior 3,452

Possible Injury1,893possible injury crashes12.7%

↑2.4%prior 1,848

No Injury9,502no injury crashes63.5%

↑15.0%prior 8,263

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

The proportion of crashes occurring in snowy weather conditions increased slightly from 2.33% in 2021 to 2.67% in 2022, mirrored by a rise in crashes on snowy road surfaces from 2.02% to 2.67%. Crashes during daylight hours increased from 58.75% to 61.5% of the total. Concurrently, the proportion of crashes occurring in dark-lighted roadway conditions decreased from 30.16% to 26.35%.

Weather

Clear9,777 (65.4%)

↑3.8%prior 9,416

Cloudy2,881 (19.3%)

↑13.6%prior 2,535

Rain1,587 (10.6%)

↑1.0%prior 1,571

Snow399 (2.7%)

↑21.6%prior 328

Other/Unknown226 (1.5%)

↑36.1%prior 166

Fog; Smog; Smoke27 (0.2%)

↑80.0%prior 15

Freezing Rain or Freezing Drizzle23 (0.2%)

↓-42.5%prior 40

Sleet; Hail21 (0.1%)

↑16.7%prior 18

Blowing Sand; Soil; Dirt; Snow11 (0.1%)

Severe Crosswinds3 (0.0%)

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight9,197 (61.5%)

↑11.1%prior 8,278

Dark - Lighted Roadway3,940 (26.3%)

↓-7.3%prior 4,249

Dawn/Dusk768 (5.1%)

↑9.6%prior 701

Dark - Roadway Not Lighted752 (5.0%)

↑15.3%prior 652

Other/Unknown171 (1.1%)

↑81.9%prior 94

Dark - Unknown Roadway Lighting127 (0.8%)

↑9.5%prior 116

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry11,664 (78.0%)

↑5.3%prior 11,078

Wet2,445 (16.3%)

↑1.3%prior 2,414

Snow399 (2.7%)

↑40.5%prior 284

Ice206 (1.4%)

↑25.6%prior 164

Other/Unknown187 (1.3%)

↑54.5%prior 121

Slush36 (0.2%)

↑71.4%prior 21

Water (Standing; Moving)13 (0.1%)

↑116.7%prior 6

Sand; Mud; Dirt; Oil; Gravel5 (0.0%)

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 6.39% year-over-year, from 28,116 to 29,913. Honda became the most frequently involved vehicle make in 2022 with 3,595 incidents, surpassing Chevrolet (3,436) which was the top make in 2021. All age groups saw an increase in persons involved, with the 0-15 age group showing an 18.5% increase and the 65+ age group increasing by 17.92%.

Top Vehicle Makes (29,913 vehicles)

HONDA3,595 (12%)

↑11.6%prior 3,220

CHEVROLET3,436 (11.5%)

↓-0.1%prior 3,441

FORD3,344 (11.2%)

↑1.7%prior 3,289

TOYOTA2,932 (9.8%)

↑11.3%prior 2,635

NISSAN1,623 (5.4%)

↑3.8%prior 1,563

HYUNDAI1,531 (5.1%)

↑21.5%prior 1,260

DODGE1,201 (4%)

↓-6.6%prior 1,286

KIA1,145 (3.8%)

↑18.2%prior 969

JEEP830 (2.8%)

↑3.6%prior 801

GMC593 (2%)

↑1.7%prior 583

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

5,160 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (34,162 persons with recorded sex)

Male19,231 (56.3%)

↑7.0%prior 17,981

Female14,931 (43.7%)

↑7.7%prior 13,863

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Data Sources & Methodology

Primary Data Source

All crash data in this report is sourced from Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS), accessed programmatically via the Csv 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: Csv 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: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31
Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31 (365 days)
Geographic scope: Columbus, OH
Total crash records analyzed: 14,955
Total persons involved: 37,398
Total vehicles involved: 29,913

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). "Columbus, OH Crash Intelligence Report: 2022." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31. Data source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS), Csv Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/ohio/columbus/2022-annual-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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14,955 CRASHES INCOLUMBUS, OH2022