Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,398 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
AUGUST 2016

All metrics benchmarked againstAugust 2015

In August 2016, Austin recorded 1,398 motor vehicle crashes, a 9.3% increase from the 1,279 crashes reported in August 2015. Despite the rise in total collisions, the number of fatalities decreased from 10 to 7 year-over-year. The most notable change was a 24.3% increase in crashes resulting in no injuries, which rose from 580 to 721.

1,398

▲ 9.3%was 1,279

Total Crash Events

7

▼ -30.0%was 10

Persons Killed

894

▼ -1.9%was 911

Persons Injured

7

▲ 16.7%was 6

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 · 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Traffic collisions in Austin showed an upward trend in August 2016 compared to the same month in the prior year. The total number of crashes increased by 9.3%, from 1,279 to 1,398. However, this increase in crash volume was accompanied by a slight decrease in total injuries, which fell by 1.9% from 911 to 894, and a 30% reduction in fatalities from 10 to 7.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

4

Motorists Killed

Prior: 8↓-50.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes in August showed some shifts year-over-year. While the peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 5 p.m. in both 2015 (106 crashes) and 2016 (115 crashes), the peak day of the week shifted from Monday (216 crashes) in 2015 to Tuesday (247 crashes) in 2016. In August 2016, weekday crash volumes increased, particularly on Mondays and Tuesdays, while crash counts on Sunday and Saturday saw a slight decrease compared to the prior year.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the total number of fatalities decreased from 10 to 7 year-over-year, the rate of fatal crashes per 100 collisions increased slightly from 0.47% to 0.50%. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries also saw a small increase, rising from 2.2% to 2.5% of all incidents. Conversely, the share of crashes involving minor injuries decreased from 21.8% to 17.8%. The most significant shift was in non-injury crashes, which grew from 45.3% of all incidents in August 2015 to 51.6% in August 2016.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.5%
↑16.7%prior 6
Serious Injury35serious injury crashes2.5%
↑25.0%prior 28
Minor Injury249minor injury crashes17.8%
↓-10.8%prior 279
Possible Injury298possible injury crashes21.3%
↑1.0%prior 295
Injury88minor injury crashes6.3%
↓-3.3%prior 91
No Injury721no injury crashes51.6%
↑24.3%prior 580

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Year-over-year, the distribution of crashes across speed zones showed a notable shift. While collisions in the 30-35 mph and 40-45 mph zones increased, crashes in 50-60 mph zones decreased from 303 to 272. Concurrently, incidents on roads with speed limits of 65 mph or more rose from 114 to 134. In August 2016, all 7 fatal crashes occurred in speed zones of 40 mph or higher, whereas in August 2015, fatal crashes were recorded in zones as low as 30 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 40 mph: 1 of 96 (1.042%) · 45 mph: 1 of 183 (0.546%) · 55 mph: 2 of 140 (1.429%) · 60 mph: 1 of 62 (1.613%) · 65 mph: 2 of 76 (2.632%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31 · 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: 2016-08-01 through 2016-08-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2016-08-01 through 2016-08-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,398

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: August 2016." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-08-01 to 2016-08-31. 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/august-2016-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 — August 2016 | ThatCarHitMe.com