Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,423 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
APRIL 2019

All metrics benchmarked againstApril 2018

In April 2019, Austin recorded 1,423 vehicle crashes, a 2.3% increase from the 1,391 crashes documented in April 2018. Total injuries also rose from 879 to 946 during this period. The most significant year-over-year change was in crash fatalities, which more than doubled from 5 in April 2018 to 11 in April 2019.

1,423

▲ 2.3%was 1,391

Total Crash Events

11

▲ 120.0%was 5

Persons Killed

946

▲ 7.6%was 879

Persons Injured

10

▲ 100.0%was 5

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (11) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (10) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for April shows an upward trend in traffic collisions and their consequences. Total crashes increased by 2.3%, from 1,391 in 2018 to 1,423 in 2019. This was accompanied by a 7.6% increase in total injuries and a 120% increase in fatalities.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

9

Motorists Killed

Prior: 2↑350.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained broadly consistent between April 2018 and April 2019. The evening rush hour at 5 PM was the peak time for crashes in both years, although the number of crashes during this hour decreased from 144 to 122. The peak day for crashes shifted from Wednesday (226 crashes) in 2018 to Tuesday (227 crashes) in 2019, with very similar incident counts.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes increased in April 2019 compared to the previous year. The number of fatal crashes doubled from 5 to 10, and their share of all crashes rose from 0.4% to 0.7%. Similarly, the count of serious injury crashes increased from 34 to 45, with their proportion growing from 2.4% to 3.2% of total incidents. Meanwhile, the proportion of crashes resulting in no injuries decreased from 48.2% in 2018 to 46.3% in 2019.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 10 fatal crash events resulted in 11 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal10fatal crashes0.7%
↑100.0%prior 5
Serious Injury45serious injury crashes3.2%
↑32.4%prior 34
Minor Injury282minor injury crashes19.8%
↓-3.8%prior 293
Possible Injury343possible injury crashes24.1%
↑22.1%prior 281
Injury84minor injury crashes5.9%
↓-22.2%prior 108
No Injury659no injury crashes46.3%
↓-1.6%prior 670

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Analysis of crashes by speed zone indicates a shift toward more severe outcomes in higher-speed areas. In April 2019, there were 5 fatal crashes recorded on roads with speed limits of 55 mph or greater. This is a significant increase from April 2018, when zero fatal crashes were recorded in these same speed zones. The 45 mph zone also saw a rise in fatal crashes from 2 to 3 year-over-year.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 190 (0.526%) · 40 mph: 1 of 85 (1.176%) · 45 mph: 3 of 193 (1.554%) · 55 mph: 2 of 101 (1.98%) · 60 mph: 1 of 46 (2.174%) · 65 mph: 1 of 99 (1.01%) · 75 mph: 1 of 13 (7.692%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30 · 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: 2019-04-01 through 2019-04-30
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2019-04-01 through 2019-04-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,423

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 2019." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2019-04-30. 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-2019-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 2019 | ThatCarHitMe.com