Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

16,881 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
2016

All metrics benchmarked against2015

In 2016, Austin recorded 16,881 total crashes, a 10.9% increase from the 15,223 crashes reported in 2015. While overall crashes and the number of people injured rose, the most notable year-over-year shift was a 22.8% decrease in total fatalities, which fell from 101 in 2015 to 78 in 2016.

16,881

10.9%was 15,223

Total Crash Events

78

-22.8%was 101

Persons Killed

10,768

7.4%was 10,030

Persons Injured

83

-15.3%was 98

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (78) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (83) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data indicates a rising trend in the total number of traffic collisions. Crashes increased by 10.9%, from 15,223 in 2015 to 16,881 in 2016. Similarly, the number of people injured in these incidents rose by 7.4%, while total fatalities decreased by 22.8% over the same period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

29

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 31-6.5%

2

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 20.0%

34

Motorists Killed

Prior: 53-35.8%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · 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 consistent year-over-year. In both 2015 and 2016, Friday was the peak day for crashes, and the 5 p.m. hour was the peak time. There were no significant shifts in the daily or hourly distribution of crashes between the two periods, with collisions consistently peaking during the evening commute.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes increased, the severity of those crashes decreased year-over-year. The fatal crash rate fell from 0.64 per 100 crashes in 2015 to 0.49 in 2016. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries remained stable at approximately 2.8%, while the share of crashes with minor injuries decreased from 19.4% to 18.3%. Correspondingly, crashes resulting in no injury increased from 47.9% to 48.7% of all incidents.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 83 fatal crash events resulted in 78 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal83fatal crashes0.5%
-15.3%prior 98
Serious Injury475serious injury crashes2.8%
14.2%prior 416
Minor Injury3,095minor injury crashes18.3%
4.6%prior 2,959
Possible Injury3,766possible injury crashes22.3%
11.5%prior 3,377
Injury1,236minor injury crashes7.3%
13.6%prior 1,088
No Injury8,226no injury crashes48.7%
12.9%prior 7,285

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

The distribution of crashes across different speed zones remained relatively consistent, with the largest volume of crashes in both years occurring in 30–35 mph zones. The largest percentage increases in crash counts occurred in the lowest (25 mph or less) and highest (65 mph or more) speed zones, rising by 16.0% and 12.0% respectively. Notably, the number of fatal crashes decreased in zones between 40 and 60 mph but increased from 7 to 11 in zones posted at 65 mph or higher.

Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 275 (0.727%) · 30 mph: 4 of 1,559 (0.257%) · 35 mph: 12 of 2,543 (0.472%) · 40 mph: 11 of 1,086 (1.013%) · 45 mph: 7 of 2,020 (0.347%) · 50 mph: 1 of 915 (0.109%) · 55 mph: 11 of 1,855 (0.593%) · 60 mph: 7 of 844 (0.829%) · 65 mph: 6 of 983 (0.61%) · 70 mph: 3 of 589 (0.509%) · 75 mph: 1 of 82 (1.22%) · 80 mph: 1 of 21 (4.762%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Posted speed limit at crash location

Data Sources & Methodology

Primary Data Source

All crash data in this report is sourced from Austin Crash Reports (https://data.austintexas.gov/d/y2wy-tgr5), 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)
  • Dataset URL: https://data.austintexas.gov/d/y2wy-tgr5
  • Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
  • Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
  • Date filter applied: 2016-01-01 through 2016-12-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2016-01-01 through 2016-12-31 (366 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 16,881

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). "Austin, TX Crash Intelligence Report: 2016." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31. Data source: Austin Crash Reports, Socrata Open Data. Dataset: https://data.austintexas.gov/d/y2wy-tgr5. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/texas/austin/2016-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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Austin, TX Crash Report — 2016 | ThatCarHitMe.com