ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · 2018
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/2018-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
16,551 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
2018
In 2018, Austin recorded 16,551 total crashes, a 1.2% increase from the 16,350 crashes in 2017. While total crashes and fatalities remained relatively stable, the number of pedestrians killed saw a significant year-over-year increase. In 2018, there were 30 pedestrian fatalities, up from 22 in the prior year, representing a 36.4% rise.
16,551
▲ 1.2%was 16,350
Total Crash Events
71
▼ -5.3%was 75
Persons Killed
10,096
▲ 2.6%was 9,841
Persons Injured
73
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (71) 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 · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crash trends in Austin were relatively stable between 2017 and 2018. Total crashes increased by a modest 1.2%, from 16,350 to 16,551. While the number of total fatalities decreased by 5.3% from 75 to 71, the number of reported injuries rose by 2.6% from 9,841 to 10,096.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
30
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
31
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Cyclists Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · 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. The peak day for crashes in both 2018 and 2017 was Friday, accounting for 2,670 and 2,565 crashes respectively. Similarly, the 5 p.m. hour remained the single hour with the most crashes in both periods, with 1,308 incidents in 2018 and 1,286 in 2017, indicating no significant shift in when crashes occurred.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The overall severity distribution of crashes remained largely unchanged between 2017 and 2018. The number of fatal crashes was identical at 73 in both years, with the fatal crash rate holding steady at approximately 0.4% of all incidents. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injury also remained stable around 2.7-2.8%, while the share of crashes classified with minor injuries rose slightly from 19.0% in 2017 to 19.9% in 2018.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 73 fatal crash events resulted in 71 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
Analysis of crashes by posted speed limit shows a notable shift towards higher speed zones in 2018 compared to 2017. While crashes in zones 60 mph and below decreased, the number of crashes in zones posted at 65 mph or more increased by 17.9%, from 1,529 to 1,803. This increase was accompanied by a rise in fatalities in these high-speed zones, from 9 in 2017 to 11 in 2018, though the rate of fatal crashes within this high-speed category remained stable at approximately 0.6%.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 28 (3.571%) · 30 mph: 1 of 1,188 (0.084%) · 35 mph: 7 of 2,420 (0.289%) · 40 mph: 3 of 975 (0.308%) · 45 mph: 12 of 1,936 (0.62%) · 50 mph: 6 of 777 (0.772%) · 55 mph: 9 of 1,434 (0.628%) · 60 mph: 7 of 706 (0.992%) · 65 mph: 5 of 1,129 (0.443%) · 70 mph: 5 of 536 (0.933%) · 75 mph: 1 of 100 (1%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · 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: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31
- Report generated: July 6, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 16,551
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: 2018." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31. 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/2018-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: 2018-01-01 – 2018-12-31
Generated: July 6, 2026 · All rights reserved