Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,095 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
DECEMBER 2011

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2010

In December 2011, Austin recorded 1,095 total traffic crashes, a 6.7% decrease from the 1,173 crashes in December 2010. While overall crashes and injuries declined, the number of fatalities increased from 5 to 6 year-over-year. The most notable shift was the increase in pedestrian fatalities, which rose from 1 in the prior period to 4 in the current period.

1,095

▼ -6.6%was 1,173

Total Crash Events

6

▲ 20.0%was 5

Persons Killed

774

▼ -4.9%was 814

Persons Injured

4

▼ -20.0%was 5

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (4) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend shows a decrease in traffic incidents, with total crashes falling by 6.7% from 1,173 to 1,095 year-over-year. Similarly, the number of injuries decreased by 4.9% from 814 to 774. However, this downward trend did not extend to fatalities, which increased by 20% from 5 to 6 persons killed.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

4

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1↑300.0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 4↓-50.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained largely consistent year-over-year. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both December 2011 (220 crashes) and December 2010 (223 crashes), and 6 PM was the peak hour in both periods. However, the distribution across other days shifted, with crashes on Thursdays increasing from 182 to 211, while crashes on Tuesdays decreased from 194 to 150.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes shows a mixed comparison. While the number of fatal crash events decreased from 5 to 4, the number of people killed in those crashes rose from 5 to 6. The proportion of crashes involving a 'Possible Injury' increased from 22.1% to 24.7% of all crashes. Conversely, the rate of 'Serious Injury' crashes remained stable at 2.5% in both periods.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 4 fatal crash events resulted in 6 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal4fatal crashes0.4%
↓-20.0%prior 5
Serious Injury27serious injury crashes2.5%
↓-6.9%prior 29
Minor Injury232minor injury crashes21.2%
↓-4.1%prior 242
Possible Injury270possible injury crashes24.7%
↑4.2%prior 259
Injury100minor injury crashes9.1%
↓-1.0%prior 101
No Injury462no injury crashes42.2%
↓-14.0%prior 537

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes decreased across most major posted speed limit zones compared to the prior year, with incidents in 35 mph zones falling from 207 to 187 and those in 55 mph zones dropping from 131 to 92. The profile of fatal crashes shifted significantly; in December 2010, all fatal crashes occurred in zones of 55 mph or higher. In December 2011, fatal crashes were recorded across a wider range of speed limits, including a 35 mph zone and a 70 mph zone, the latter of which had no fatal crashes in the previous year.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 187 (0.535%) · 50 mph: 1 of 58 (1.724%) · 55 mph: 1 of 92 (1.087%) · 70 mph: 1 of 12 (8.333%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31 · 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: 2011-12-01 through 2011-12-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2011-12-01 through 2011-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,095

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: December 2011." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31. 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/december-2011-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 — December 2011 | ThatCarHitMe.com