Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,245 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
APRIL 2015

All metrics benchmarked againstApril 2014

In April 2015, Austin recorded 1,245 total traffic crashes, a 1.9% increase from the 1,222 crashes documented in April 2014. While total crashes saw a slight rise, the number of resulting injuries fell by 14.3%, from 925 to 793. Fatalities remained unchanged year-over-year, with 6 deaths recorded in both periods.

1,245

▲ 1.9%was 1,222

Total Crash Events

6

Persons Killed

793

▼ -14.3%was 925

Persons Injured

6

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (6) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Comparing April 2015 to the same month in the prior year, the overall number of crashes remained relatively stable, increasing by 1.9% from 1,222 to 1,245. However, the number of people injured in these incidents decreased by 14.3% year-over-year. The number of fatalities held constant at 6 for both periods.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

3

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 4↓-25.0%

1

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1→0.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed minor shifts between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Friday (214 crashes) in April 2014 to Thursday (216 crashes) in April 2015. The evening commute remained the most frequent time for incidents, with the 5 PM hour being the peak in both years, though the number of crashes during this hour increased from 102 to 123.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the number of fatal crashes remained unchanged at 6 in both April 2014 and April 2015, the distribution of injury severity shifted. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries increased from 2.3% to 3.0% year-over-year, while crashes involving minor injuries decreased from 24.0% to 19.8% of the total. This shift corresponds with an increase in the proportion of non-injury crashes, which rose from 44.5% to 47.1% of all incidents.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal6fatal crashes0.5%
→0.0%prior 6
Serious Injury37serious injury crashes3%
↑32.1%prior 28
Minor Injury247minor injury crashes19.8%
↓-15.7%prior 293
Possible Injury266possible injury crashes21.4%
↓-7.6%prior 288
Injury102minor injury crashes8.2%
↑61.9%prior 63
No Injury587no injury crashes47.1%
↑7.9%prior 544

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

A comparison of crashes by posted speed limit shows a shift towards higher speed zones. Crashes in 50-60 mph zones increased from 244 to 276 year-over-year, while those in 30-35 mph zones decreased from 333 to 317. In April 2015, all 6 recorded fatalities occurred in zones with speed limits of 45 mph or 55 mph. This contrasts with April 2014, when fatalities were recorded across a wider range of speed zones, including 40, 45, 50, and 65 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 45 mph: 4 of 171 (2.339%) · 55 mph: 2 of 131 (1.527%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30 · 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: 2015-04-01 through 2015-04-30
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2015-04-01 through 2015-04-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,245

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: April 2015." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2015-04-01 to 2015-04-30. 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/april-2015-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 — April 2015 | ThatCarHitMe.com