ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · 2021
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/2021-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
13,198 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
2021
In 2021, Austin recorded 13,198 total vehicle crashes, a 5.6% increase from the 12,502 crashes reported in 2020. This rise in collisions was accompanied by a notable increase in crash severity. The most significant year-over-year change was a 23.9% increase in total fatalities, which rose from 92 in 2020 to 114 in 2021.
13,198
▲ 5.6%was 12,502
Total Crash Events
114
▲ 23.9%was 92
Persons Killed
8,769
▲ 12.6%was 7,787
Persons Injured
107
▲ 17.6%was 91
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (114) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (107) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic safety trends in Austin show an increase in crash frequency and severity from 2020 to 2021. Total crashes increased by 5.6%, from 12,502 to 13,198. The negative trend was more pronounced in outcomes, with total injuries rising by 12.6% and total fatalities increasing by 23.9% over the same period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
41
Pedestrians Killed
3
Cyclists Killed
54
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Cyclists Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · 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 highly consistent between 2020 and 2021. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both years, accounting for 2,070 incidents in 2020 and 2,192 in 2021. Similarly, the evening commute hour of 5 p.m. was the single busiest hour for crashes in both periods, recording 956 crashes in 2020 and 955 in 2021, indicating no shift in the daily peak.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes increased from 2020 to 2021. The proportion of fatal crashes rose from 0.7% to 0.8% of all incidents, with the absolute count of fatal crashes increasing from 91 to 107. Crashes resulting in serious injuries also saw a proportional increase, rising from 2.9% of all crashes in 2020 to 3.4% in 2021. Concurrently, the share of crashes with no reported injuries decreased from 48.7% to 45.8%.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 107 fatal crash events resulted in 114 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes increased across most speed zones from 2020 to 2021, with a significant growth in incidents on high-speed roadways. The number of crashes in zones of 60 mph or greater increased from 1,743 to 2,513. Fatal crashes in these high-speed zones also rose from 20 in 2020 to 38 in 2021. Crashes in zones 35 mph or less also increased, from 2,751 to 3,093, while the number of associated fatalities in these lower-speed zones doubled from 9 to 18.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 213 (0.939%) · 30 mph: 2 of 904 (0.221%) · 35 mph: 14 of 1,892 (0.74%) · 40 mph: 8 of 722 (1.108%) · 45 mph: 15 of 1,818 (0.825%) · 50 mph: 5 of 661 (0.756%) · 55 mph: 9 of 1,192 (0.755%) · 60 mph: 6 of 601 (0.998%) · 65 mph: 16 of 1,253 (1.277%) · 70 mph: 14 of 561 (2.496%) · 75 mph: 2 of 89 (2.247%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · 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: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31
- Report generated: July 6, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 13,198
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: 2021." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31. 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/2021-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: 2021-01-01 – 2021-12-31
Generated: July 6, 2026 · All rights reserved