ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · OHIO, OH · 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/ohio/statewide/2023-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,214 CRASHES IN
OHIO, OH
2023
In 2023, Defiance County recorded 1,214 total crashes, a 2.0% increase from the 1,190 crashes documented in 2022. Despite the slight rise in total collisions, the most significant year-over-year change was a substantial decrease in traffic fatalities, which fell from 6 in 2022 to 1 in 2023. Meanwhile, the number of individuals injured in these incidents rose from 278 to 304.
1,214
▲ 2.0%was 1,190
Total Crash Events
1
▼ -83.3%was 6
Persons Killed
304
▲ 9.4%was 278
Persons Injured
80
▲ 1.3%was 79
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) 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 crashes in Defiance County showed a slight upward trend, increasing by 2.0% from 1,190 in 2022 to 1,214 in 2023. While the total number of crashes rose, fatalities saw a significant decline from 6 to 1. Conversely, the number of people injured in crashes increased by 9.4%, from 278 in 2022 to 304 in 2023.
80
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2023
▲ 1.3% vs prior (79)
The number of hit-and-run crashes in Defiance County remained stable year-over-year, with 80 incidents reported in 2023 compared to 79 in 2022. The hit-and-run rate, which measures the percentage of total crashes that are hit-and-runs, also held steady at 6.6% for both periods. This indicates no significant change in the trend of drivers leaving the scene of a crash.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
1
Motorists Killed
6
Pedestrians Injured
298
Motorists Injured
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 remained largely consistent year-over-year. Friday continued to be the day with the most crashes in both 2023 (211 incidents) and 2022 (198 incidents). Similarly, the 6 PM hour was the peak time for collisions in both periods, with 95 crashes in 2023 and 82 in 2022. Crashes during the 6 AM hour saw a notable increase, rising from 51 in 2022 to 86 in 2023.
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
Crash severity saw a notable improvement, with fatal crashes decreasing from 6 in 2022 to 1 in 2023, and the corresponding fatal crash rate dropping from 0.5% to 0.08%. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries rose slightly from 1.8% to 2.1%, and minor injury crashes increased from 9.0% to 9.5% of all collisions. The percentage of non-injury crashes remained stable at approximately 83% of all incidents in both years.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
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 proportion of crashes occurring in clear weather and on dry roads remained consistent year-over-year, accounting for approximately 66% and 81% of all incidents, respectively. There was an increase in crashes during rainy conditions, from 77 in 2022 to 104 in 2023, while snow-related crashes fell from 58 to 40. A larger share of crashes occurred in darkness on unlighted roadways, rising from 31.7% of all crashes in 2022 to 36.6% in 2023.
Weather
Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top vehicle makes involved in crashes remained largely unchanged, with Chevrolet (490 vehicles) and Ford (252 vehicles) leading in 2023, consistent with the prior year's rankings. The number of Jeeps involved in crashes saw an increase from 60 to 75. Regarding persons involved, the 35-44 age group saw an increase in representation, rising from 287 individuals in 2022 to 325 in 2023, while the 65+ age group saw a slight decrease from 318 to 300.
Top Vehicle Makes (1,726 vehicles)
Source: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
43 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (2,228 persons with recorded sex)
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: 1,214
- Total persons involved: 2,256
- Total vehicles involved: 1,726
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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Ohio Crash Data (ODOT TIMS) · Csv
Period: 2023-01-01 – 2023-12-31
Generated: July 5, 2026 · All rights reserved