Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

26,900 CRASHES IN
OHIO, OH
2023

All metrics benchmarked against2022

In 2023, Cuyahoga County recorded 26,900 vehicle crashes, a 13.0% decrease from the 30,904 crashes reported in 2022. Despite the overall reduction in crashes, the number of fatalities increased from 87 to 104, a year-over-year rise of 19.5%. This increase in fatalities occurred alongside a 9.1% drop in total injuries.

26,900

▼ -13.0%was 30,904

Total Crash Events

104

▲ 19.5%was 87

Persons Killed

11,491

▼ -9.1%was 12,647

Persons Injured

6,134

▼ -16.7%was 7,364

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (104) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (100) 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 · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic safety trends in Cuyahoga County showed a notable decrease in the total number of crashes, falling by 13.0% from 30,904 in 2022 to 26,900 in 2023. The number of injuries also declined by 9.1% year-over-year. However, this positive trend did not extend to crash fatalities, which saw a 19.5% increase from 87 to 104 over the same period.

6,134

Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2023

▼ -16.7% vs prior (7,364)

The number of hit-and-run incidents in Cuyahoga County decreased in 2023 compared to the previous year. There were 6,134 hit-and-run crashes recorded, down from 7,364 in 2022. The hit-and-run rate, which measures these incidents as a percentage of all crashes, also saw a decline, falling from 23.8% in 2022 to 22.8% in 2023.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 21↑9.5%

Motorists Killed

Prior: 66↑22.7%

375

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 395↓-5.1%

11,116

Motorists Injured

Prior: 12,252↓-9.3%

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes in Cuyahoga County remained stable year-over-year. Friday continued to be the day with the highest number of incidents in both 2023 (4,365 crashes) and 2022 (5,182 crashes). Similarly, the afternoon commute hour of 4 p.m. was the peak time for crashes in both periods, with 2,298 incidents in 2023 compared to 2,623 in 2022. While the overall number of crashes decreased, the distribution across the week and day saw no significant shifts.

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes decreased, the severity of crashes worsened in 2023. The number of fatal crashes rose from 83 to 100, and the fatal crash rate increased from 0.27 to 0.37 per 100 crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in a serious injury was stable at 2.3% for both years. The overall percentage of crashes involving any level of injury (from possible to serious) saw a slight increase from 28.0% in 2022 to 28.8% in 2023.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 100 fatal crash events resulted in 104 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal100fatal crashes0.4%

↑20.5%prior 83

Serious Injury621serious injury crashes2.3%

↓-12.5%prior 710

Minor Injury2,711minor injury crashes10.1%

↓-9.4%prior 2,993

Possible Injury4,409possible injury crashes16.4%

↓-11.1%prior 4,959

No Injury19,059no injury crashes70.9%

↓-14.0%prior 22,159

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

The distribution of crashes across different environmental conditions remained largely consistent between 2022 and 2023. Crashes in daylight accounted for approximately 66% of all incidents in both years. Similarly, crashes on dry roads represented the majority, making up 73.3% of the total in 2023 compared to 70.8% in 2022. There was a shift in adverse weather conditions, with the proportion of crashes in the snow decreasing from 7.2% to 5.3%, while crashes in the rain increased slightly from 9.0% to 11.4%.

Weather

Clear16,026 (59.6%)

↓-11.0%prior 18,000

Cloudy5,655 (21.0%)

↓-19.3%prior 7,011

Rain3,074 (11.4%)

↑10.8%prior 2,774

Snow1,428 (5.3%)

↓-35.5%prior 2,213

Other/Unknown507 (1.9%)

↓-10.9%prior 569

Fog; Smog; Smoke79 (0.3%)

↑16.2%prior 68

Sleet; Hail70 (0.3%)

↓-45.7%prior 129

Freezing Rain or Freezing Drizzle46 (0.2%)

↓-50.5%prior 93

Severe Crosswinds10 (0.0%)

↓-28.6%prior 14

Blowing Sand; Soil; Dirt; Snow5 (0.0%)

↓-84.8%prior 33

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight17,861 (66.4%)

↓-12.6%prior 20,430

Dark - Lighted Roadway6,554 (24.4%)

↓-15.8%prior 7,783

Dawn/Dusk1,469 (5.5%)

↓-7.6%prior 1,589

Dark - Roadway Not Lighted524 (1.9%)

↓-6.6%prior 561

Other/Unknown330 (1.2%)

↓-7.8%prior 358

Dark - Unknown Roadway Lighting162 (0.6%)

↓-11.5%prior 183

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry19,717 (73.3%)

↓-9.8%prior 21,869

Wet5,424 (20.2%)

↓-5.9%prior 5,767

Snow985 (3.7%)

↓-49.6%prior 1,956

Other/Unknown389 (1.4%)

↓-11.4%prior 439

Ice267 (1.0%)

↓-60.8%prior 681

Water (Standing; Moving)58 (0.2%)

↑11.5%prior 52

Slush56 (0.2%)

↓-56.9%prior 130

Sand; Mud; Dirt; Oil; Gravel4 (0.0%)

↓-60.0%prior 10

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The composition of vehicles and persons involved in crashes showed little change year-over-year. In both 2023 and 2022, the most common vehicle makes involved were Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota, and Honda, maintaining the same rank order. The age distribution of individuals in crashes also remained consistent, with the 26-34 age group being the largest cohort in both periods, followed by the 35-44 and 45-54 age groups.

Top Vehicle Makes (51,879 vehicles)

CHEVROLET5,790 (11.2%)

↓-15.0%prior 6,810

FORD5,734 (11.1%)

↓-14.9%prior 6,740

OTHER/UNKNOWN5,163 (10%)

↓-13.3%prior 5,958

TOYOTA3,908 (7.5%)

↓-11.3%prior 4,406

HONDA3,554 (6.9%)

↓-12.6%prior 4,066

NISSAN2,738 (5.3%)

↓-11.8%prior 3,103

JEEP2,342 (4.5%)

↓-11.7%prior 2,653

KIA2,253 (4.3%)

↓-15.1%prior 2,654

HYUNDAI2,169 (4.2%)

↓-17.5%prior 2,628

DODGE1,874 (3.6%)

↓-17.5%prior 2,271

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

6,738 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (58,502 persons with recorded sex)

Male31,456 (53.8%)

↓-11.6%prior 35,579

Female27,046 (46.2%)

↓-12.5%prior 30,918

Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · 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: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31
Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31 (365 days)
Geographic scope: ohio, OH
Total crash records analyzed: 26,900
Total persons involved: 63,700
Total vehicles involved: 51,879

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). "ohio, OH Crash Intelligence Report: 2023." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31. Data source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS), Csv Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/ohio/statewide/2023-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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26,900 CRASHES INOHIO, OH2023