Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

663 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
APRIL 2020

All metrics benchmarked againstApril 2019

In April 2020, Austin recorded 663 total vehicle crashes, a 53.4% decrease from the 1,423 crashes reported in April 2019. This substantial year-over-year decline was also reflected in total injuries, which fell from 946 to 406, and fatalities, which decreased from 11 to 7. The most significant shift was the overall reduction in crash volume across the city.

663

▼ -53.4%was 1,423

Total Crash Events

7

▼ -36.4%was 11

Persons Killed

406

▼ -57.1%was 946

Persons Injured

7

▼ -30.0%was 10

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (7) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (7) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash data for April 2020 shows a significant downward trend compared to the same month in the previous year. Total crashes fell by 53.4% from 1,423 to 663. Similarly, total injuries decreased by 57.1% from 946 to 406, and fatalities dropped from 11 to 7.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

4

Motorists Killed

Prior: 9↓-55.6%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between the two periods. While the peak hour for collisions remained 5 p.m. in both April 2019 (122 crashes) and April 2020 (58 crashes), the peak day for crashes moved from Tuesday (227 crashes) in 2019 to Thursday (117 crashes) in 2020. Overall crash volumes were significantly lower across all days and hours in the current period compared to the prior year.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the total number of crashes and fatalities decreased year-over-year, the fatal crash rate increased from 0.7 fatalities per 100 crashes in April 2019 to 1.06 in April 2020. The proportion of crashes resulting in a serious injury saw a slight increase from 3.2% to 3.5%. Conversely, the share of crashes involving possible injuries decreased from 24.1% to 19.0%, while the proportion of no-injury crashes rose from 46.3% to 48.4%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes1.1%
↓-30.0%prior 10
Serious Injury23serious injury crashes3.5%
↓-48.9%prior 45
Minor Injury126minor injury crashes19%
↓-55.3%prior 282
Possible Injury126possible injury crashes19%
↓-63.3%prior 343
Injury60minor injury crashes9%
↓-28.6%prior 84
No Injury321no injury crashes48.4%
↓-51.3%prior 659

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

In April 2020, a greater proportion of crashes occurred in zones with speed limits of 50-60 mph (22.6%) compared to April 2019 (21.3%). Conversely, the share of crashes in 40-45 mph zones decreased from 28.4% to 18.9% year-over-year. While total fatalities decreased, all 6 fatal crashes in April 2020 with a recorded speed limit occurred in zones of 50 mph or higher. In contrast, the prior year saw fatal crashes distributed across a wider range of speed zones, including some below 50 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 50 mph: 2 of 37 (5.405%) · 55 mph: 2 of 68 (2.941%) · 65 mph: 2 of 36 (5.556%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30 · 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: 2020-04-01 through 2020-04-30
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-04-01 through 2020-04-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 663

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 2020." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2020-04-30. 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-2020-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 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com