ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · AUGUST 2018
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
Authentication: None required. Public endpoint.
GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/texas/austin/august-2018-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,444 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
AUGUST 2018
In August 2018, Austin recorded 1,444 vehicle crashes, an increase of 5.5% from the 1,369 crashes recorded in August 2017. This year-over-year rise was accompanied by an increase in both total injuries, which grew from 844 to 942, and total fatalities, which rose from 7 to 8. The most notable change was the overall increase in crash volume and the corresponding rise in crash-related casualties.
1,444
▲ 5.5%was 1,369
Total Crash Events
8
▲ 14.3%was 7
Persons Killed
942
▲ 11.6%was 844
Persons Injured
9
▲ 28.6%was 7
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (8) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (9) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Traffic collisions in Austin showed an upward trend in the year-over-year comparison for August. Total crashes increased by 5.5%, rising from 1,369 in August 2017 to 1,444 in August 2018. This increase was reflected across key metrics, with total injuries rising by 11.6% and fatalities increasing from 7 to 8.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
4
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes showed some shifts between August 2017 and August 2018. While the peak hour for collisions remained the 5 p.m. evening commute in both periods, the number of crashes during this hour increased from 114 to 130. The day with the most crashes shifted from Thursday in 2017 (250 crashes) to Friday in 2018 (258 crashes), with Friday crashes increasing substantially from 182 in the prior year.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The overall severity of crashes saw a mixed but generally upward trend from August 2017 to August 2018. The number of fatal crashes increased from 7 to 9, and their proportion of total crashes rose from 0.5% to 0.6%. While the share of serious injury crashes decreased from 2.8% to 2.3%, the proportions of both minor and possible injury crashes increased, contributing to a rise in the overall injury crash share from 42.3% to 44.0% of all collisions.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 9 fatal crash events resulted in 8 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
A comparison of crash locations by posted speed limits indicates a shift toward higher speed roadways between August 2017 and August 2018. Crashes occurring in zones with speed limits of 35 mph or less decreased from 355 to 339. Conversely, collisions in zones between 40 mph and 55 mph increased from 422 to 466, and crashes on roads with speed limits of 60 mph or higher also rose from 193 to 210. Fatal crashes occurred across a wide range of speed zones in both periods, with no distinct concentration shift.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 2 (50%) · 35 mph: 1 of 226 (0.442%) · 45 mph: 2 of 202 (0.99%) · 65 mph: 1 of 93 (1.075%) · 70 mph: 1 of 44 (2.273%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31 · 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: 2018-08-01 through 2018-08-31
- Report generated: July 5, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-08-01 through 2018-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,444
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 2018." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-08-01 to 2018-08-31. 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-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata
Period: 2018-08-01 – 2018-08-31
Generated: July 5, 2026 · All rights reserved