Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,363 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
DECEMBER 2017

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2016

In December 2017, Austin recorded 1,363 motor vehicle crashes, a 9.4% decrease from the 1,505 crashes reported in December 2016. Despite the overall decline in collisions, the number of fatalities increased from 6 to 7. The most significant year-over-year change was a 50% reduction in crashes resulting in serious injuries, which fell from 50 in the prior period to 25 in the current period.

1,363

▼ -9.4%was 1,505

Total Crash Events

7

▲ 16.7%was 6

Persons Killed

723

▼ -13.9%was 840

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 · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Traffic crashes in Austin showed a downward trend in December 2017 compared to the same month in 2016. The total number of crashes decreased by 9.4%, from 1,505 to 1,363. Similarly, the total number of injuries fell by 13.9%, from 840 to 723, though the number of fatalities rose from 6 to 7.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 3↓-66.7%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 3↓-33.3%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between December 2016 and December 2017. The most frequent day for crashes moved from Saturday (279 incidents) in the prior year to Wednesday (233 incidents) in the current year. While the peak hour for collisions remained 6 p.m. in both periods, the number of crashes during this hour increased from 115 to 127. The data indicates a shift from a weekend-heavy crash pattern in 2016 to a mid-week peak in 2017.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes decreased, the proportion of fatal incidents increased from 0.4% in December 2016 to 0.51% in December 2017. Conversely, there was a notable decrease in the most severe non-fatal crashes, with the count of serious injury crashes falling by 50% from 50 to 25. As a percentage of all crashes, serious injury incidents dropped from 3.3% to 1.8%, while the proportion of crashes involving minor injuries remained steady at 16.7% in both periods.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.5%
↑16.7%prior 6
Serious Injury25serious injury crashes1.8%
↓-50.0%prior 50
Minor Injury227minor injury crashes16.7%
↓-9.9%prior 252
Possible Injury269possible injury crashes19.7%
↓-2.5%prior 276
Injury114minor injury crashes8.4%
↓-8.1%prior 124
No Injury721no injury crashes52.9%
↓-9.5%prior 797

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Year-over-year, crashes decreased across most speed zones, with the most significant reductions seen in 30-35 mph zones (a drop of 83 crashes) and 50-60 mph zones (a drop of 60 crashes). The distribution of fatal crashes by speed limit also shifted. In December 2016, the 5 recorded fatal crashes occurred in zones of 35 mph or higher. In contrast, for December 2017, fatal crashes were recorded in lower speed zones, including one each in 30 mph and 40 mph zones, which had no fatalities in the prior-year period.

Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 88 (1.136%) · 35 mph: 1 of 161 (0.621%) · 40 mph: 1 of 89 (1.124%) · 65 mph: 1 of 86 (1.163%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · 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: 2017-12-01 through 2017-12-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2017-12-01 through 2017-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,363

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 2017." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31. 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-2017-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 2017 | ThatCarHitMe.com