ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · 2017
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/texas/austin/2017-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
16,350 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
2017
In 2017, Austin recorded 16,350 traffic crashes, a 3.1% decrease from the 16,881 crashes recorded in 2016. This overall decline was accompanied by a corresponding drop in negative outcomes, with total injuries falling 8.6% from 10,768 to 9,841. Total fatalities also decreased from 78 in 2016 to 75 in 2017.
16,350
▼ -3.1%was 16,881
Total Crash Events
75
▼ -3.8%was 78
Persons Killed
9,841
▼ -8.6%was 10,768
Persons Injured
73
▼ -12.0%was 83
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (75) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (73) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Key traffic safety metrics in Austin indicated a positive trend from 2016 to 2017. Total crashes decreased by 3.1% (from 16,881 to 16,350), total injuries fell by 8.6% (from 10,768 to 9,841), and total fatalities declined by 3.8% (from 78 to 75).
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
22
Pedestrians Killed
4
Cyclists Killed
38
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Cyclists Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · 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 Austin showed remarkable consistency year-over-year. Friday remained the peak day for crashes in both 2017 (2,565 crashes) and 2016 (2,683 crashes). Similarly, the 5 PM hour was the consistent peak time for collisions in both periods, accounting for 1,286 crashes in 2017 and 1,337 in the prior year.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes shifted toward less severe outcomes in 2017 compared to 2016. The proportion of crashes resulting in a fatality decreased from 0.5% to 0.4%, and the share of 'Possible Injury' crashes fell from 22.3% to 19.8%. Conversely, the proportion of crashes with no reported injuries increased, rising from 48.7% of all incidents in 2016 to 50.2% in 2017.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 73 fatal crash events resulted in 75 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
The distribution of crashes across different speed zones was nearly identical between 2016 and 2017, with the largest portion of collisions in both years occurring in 40-55 mph zones. While total crash counts fell, the proportions remained stable. An analysis of fatal crashes within these zones shows a decrease in high-speed areas; zones of 60 mph or higher recorded 14 fatal crashes in 2017, down from 18 in 2016.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 7 of 1,371 (0.511%) · 35 mph: 9 of 2,345 (0.384%) · 40 mph: 8 of 1,019 (0.785%) · 45 mph: 13 of 1,970 (0.66%) · 50 mph: 3 of 795 (0.377%) · 55 mph: 7 of 1,646 (0.425%) · 60 mph: 5 of 743 (0.673%) · 65 mph: 3 of 856 (0.35%) · 70 mph: 4 of 567 (0.705%) · 75 mph: 1 of 80 (1.25%) · 80 mph: 1 of 24 (4.167%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · 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: 2017-01-01 through 2017-12-31
- Report generated: July 6, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2017-01-01 through 2017-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 16,350
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: 2017." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31. 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/2017-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: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata
Period: 2017-01-01 – 2017-12-31
Generated: July 6, 2026 · All rights reserved