Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,074 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
AUGUST 2023

All metrics benchmarked againstAugust 2022

In August 2023, Austin recorded 1,074 motor vehicle crashes, a 3.7% decrease from the 1,115 crashes reported in August 2022. During this period, total injuries also declined from 780 to 715. The most significant year-over-year change was the reduction in traffic fatalities, which fell from 7 in the prior year period to 4 in the current period.

1,074

▼ -3.7%was 1,115

Total Crash Events

4

▼ -42.9%was 7

Persons Killed

715

▼ -8.3%was 780

Persons Injured

5

▼ -37.5%was 8

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (4) 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 · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for August indicates a downward trend in traffic incidents in Austin. Total crashes fell by 3.7%, from 1,115 in August 2022 to 1,074 in August 2023. Correspondingly, the number of people injured decreased by 8.3% and fatalities dropped from 7 to 4.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

3

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 4↓-25.0%

1

Motorists Killed

Prior: 3↓-66.7%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · 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 2022 and August 2023. The most frequent day for crashes changed from Monday, with 177 incidents in the prior year, to Tuesday, with 185 incidents in the current year. However, the peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 5 p.m. in both periods, accounting for 95 crashes in August 2022 and 102 in August 2023.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes shifted slightly year-over-year, with a decrease in the fatal crash rate from 0.72 to 0.47. The proportion of fatal crashes decreased from 0.7% of all incidents in August 2022 to 0.5% in August 2023. While the count of serious injury crashes remained unchanged at 31 for both periods, the share of crashes resulting in no injury increased from 45.9% to 48.3%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 5 fatal crash events resulted in 4 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal5fatal crashes0.5%
↓-37.5%prior 8
Serious Injury31serious injury crashes2.9%
→0.0%prior 31
Minor Injury247minor injury crashes23%
↓-3.1%prior 255
Possible Injury204possible injury crashes19%
↓-10.9%prior 229
Injury68minor injury crashes6.3%
↓-15.0%prior 80
No Injury519no injury crashes48.3%
↑1.4%prior 512

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

A comparison of crashes by posted speed limit reveals a shift in distribution between the two periods. The number of crashes in 30–35 mph zones increased from 241 in August 2022 to 343 in August 2023. In August 2023, three of the five fatal crashes occurred in 35 mph zones, whereas in the prior year, fatal crashes were more broadly distributed across zones ranging from 30 mph to 65 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 3 of 231 (1.299%) · 45 mph: 1 of 162 (0.617%) · 70 mph: 1 of 34 (2.941%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · 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: 2023-08-01 through 2023-08-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2023-08-01 through 2023-08-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,074

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 2023." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31. 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-2023-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 2023 | ThatCarHitMe.com