Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,391 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
APRIL 2018

All metrics benchmarked againstApril 2017

In April 2018, Austin recorded 1,391 traffic crashes, a 5.5% increase from the 1,318 crashes reported in April 2017. Despite the overall rise in collisions, the number of fatalities saw a significant year-over-year decrease. There were 5 fatalities in April 2018, representing a 44.4% reduction from the 9 fatalities recorded in the same month of the previous year.

1,391

▲ 5.5%was 1,318

Total Crash Events

5

▼ -44.4%was 9

Persons Killed

879

▲ 1.6%was 865

Persons Injured

5

▼ -28.6%was 7

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (5) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (5) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for April indicates a rising trend in the total number of crashes, with a 5.5% increase from 1,318 in 2017 to 1,391 in 2018. While the number of total injuries remained relatively stable with a slight 1.6% increase, there was a notable 44.4% decrease in traffic fatalities, which fell from 9 to 5.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 5↓-60.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · 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 some changes between April 2017 and April 2018. The peak day for collisions shifted from Friday (218 crashes) in the prior year to Wednesday (226 crashes) in the current period. The peak hour for crashes remained consistent at 5 p.m. in both years, though the volume of crashes during this hour increased by 33.3% from 108 to 144.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crash severity generally decreased from the prior year. The rate of fatal crashes fell from 0.53% of all collisions in April 2017 to 0.36% in April 2018. Similarly, the proportion of crashes resulting in a serious injury declined from 2.9% to 2.4%. Correspondingly, the share of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 45.8% to 48.2% of all incidents.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal5fatal crashes0.4%
↓-28.6%prior 7
Serious Injury34serious injury crashes2.4%
↓-10.5%prior 38
Minor Injury293minor injury crashes21.1%
↑7.7%prior 272
Possible Injury281possible injury crashes20.2%
↑1.8%prior 276
Injury108minor injury crashes7.8%
↓-11.5%prior 122
No Injury670no injury crashes48.2%
↑11.1%prior 603

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

The distribution of crashes across speed zones shifted year-over-year. In April 2018, there was a decrease in crashes within the 50–60 mph range (from 263 to 206 incidents) and an increase in crashes in zones of 65 mph or more (from 113 to 143 incidents). While the prior year saw fatal crashes distributed across a wide range of speed zones, the fatal crashes in April 2018 with speed data occurred in zones of 45 mph or less.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 232 (0.431%) · 45 mph: 2 of 176 (1.136%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · 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: 2018-04-01 through 2018-04-30
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2018-04-01 through 2018-04-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,391

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 2018." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30. 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-2018-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 2018 | ThatCarHitMe.com