Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

772 CRASHES IN
GARFIELD HEIGHTS, OH
2023

All metrics benchmarked against2022

Garfield Heights experienced a decrease in total crashes, falling by 9.07% from 849 in 2022 to 772 in 2023. Despite this overall reduction, total fatalities saw a significant increase of 150%, rising from 2 in 2022 to 5 in 2023. This marks a critical shift in the severity of crash outcomes.

772

▼ -9.1%was 849

Total Crash Events

5

▲ 150.0%was 2

Persons Killed

290

▼ -11.0%was 326

Persons Injured

205

▼ -17.0%was 247

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (5) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (5) 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, total crashes in Garfield Heights decreased by 9.07%, from 849 in 2022 to 772 in 2023. However, total fatalities increased substantially by 150%, rising from 2 in 2022 to 5 in 2023. Total injuries also decreased by 11.04%, from 326 in 2022 to 290 in 2023.

205

Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2023

▼ -17.0% vs prior (247)

Hit-and-run crashes decreased by 17.00%, falling from 247 in 2022 to 205 in 2023. Concurrently, the hit-and-run rate decreased from 29.1% in 2022 to 26.6% in 2023, indicating a downward trend in these types of incidents.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

3

Motorists Killed

Prior: 2↑50.0%

12

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 10↑20.0%

278

Motorists Injured

Prior: 316↓-12.0%

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 peak day for crashes shifted from Friday with 134 crashes in 2022 to Thursday with 137 crashes in 2023. The peak hour for crashes also changed, moving from 4 p.m. with 72 crashes in 2022 to 5 p.m. with 59 crashes 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

Fatal crashes increased from 1 in 2022 to 5 in 2023, resulting in the fatal crash rate rising from 0.12% to 0.65%. Serious injury crashes (A) increased from 12 (1.4% of total crashes) in 2022 to 17 (2.2%) in 2023. Minor injury crashes (B) maintained a consistent proportion of 11.9% of total crashes in both years, with 101 in 2022 and 92 in 2023.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal5fatal crashes0.6%
↑400.0%prior 1
Serious Injury17serious injury crashes2.2%
↑41.7%prior 12
Minor Injury92minor injury crashes11.9%
↓-8.9%prior 101
Possible Injury114possible injury crashes14.8%
↑0.9%prior 113
No Injury544no injury crashes70.5%
↓-12.5%prior 622

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

Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions slightly decreased from 410 in 2022 to 402 in 2023, while cloudy conditions saw a larger reduction from 298 to 240 crashes. Crashes on dry road surfaces decreased from 624 in 2022 to 608 in 2023, and those on wet surfaces also fell from 168 to 131. Crashes occurring in daylight decreased from 546 in 2022 to 480 in 2023, whereas crashes in dark-lighted roadway conditions remained stable at 235 for both years.

Weather

Clear402 (52.1%)
↓-2.0%prior 410
Cloudy240 (31.1%)
↓-19.5%prior 298
Rain69 (8.9%)
↑1.5%prior 68
Snow44 (5.7%)
↓-17.0%prior 53
Fog; Smog; Smoke8 (1.0%)
Other/Unknown7 (0.9%)
↓-22.2%prior 9
Sleet; Hail2 (0.3%)
↓-60.0%prior 5

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

Lighting

Daylight480 (62.2%)
↓-12.1%prior 546
Dark - Lighted Roadway235 (30.4%)
→0.0%prior 235
Dawn/Dusk41 (5.3%)
↓-6.8%prior 44
Dark - Roadway Not Lighted9 (1.2%)
↓-35.7%prior 14
Other/Unknown5 (0.6%)
↓-37.5%prior 8
Dark - Unknown Roadway Lighting2 (0.3%)

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

Road Surface

Dry608 (78.8%)
↓-2.6%prior 624
Wet131 (17.0%)
↓-22.0%prior 168
Snow28 (3.6%)
↓-40.4%prior 47
Ice3 (0.4%)
↓-57.1%prior 7
Other/Unknown1 (0.1%)
Slush1 (0.1%)

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

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by 8.47%, from 1629 in 2022 to 1491 in 2023. Passenger cars involved decreased from 804 to 682, while sport utility vehicles saw a slight increase from 479 to 482. Among persons involved, the 0-15 age group saw a decrease from 211 to 136, and the 45-54 age group decreased from 244 to 190, while the 65+ age group increased from 126 to 138. The number of males involved decreased from 998 to 876, and females involved decreased from 850 to 737.

Top Vehicle Makes (1,491 vehicles)

1
CHEVROLET196 (13.1%)
↓-8.4%prior 214
2
FORD175 (11.7%)
↓-7.4%prior 189
3
TOYOTA103 (6.9%)
↑1.0%prior 102
4
KIA99 (6.6%)
↓-7.5%prior 107
5
HONDA94 (6.3%)
↓-15.3%prior 111
6
JEEP83 (5.6%)
→0.0%prior 83
7
NISSAN83 (5.6%)
↓-4.6%prior 87
8
DODGE75 (5%)
↓-15.7%prior 89
9
HYUNDAI70 (4.7%)
↓-15.7%prior 83
10
VOLKSWAGEN39 (2.6%)
↑18.2%prior 33

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

188 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (1,613 persons with recorded sex)

Male876 (54.3%)
↓-12.2%prior 998
Female737 (45.7%)
↓-13.3%prior 850

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 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: Garfield Heights, OH
  • Total crash records analyzed: 772
  • Total persons involved: 1,747
  • Total vehicles involved: 1,491

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). "Garfield Heights, OH Crash Intelligence Report: 2023." Published July 6, 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/garfield-heights/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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Garfield Heights, OH Crash Report — 2023 | ThatCarHitMe.com