ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · DECEMBER 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/december-2018-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,489 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
DECEMBER 2018
In December 2018, Austin recorded 1,489 total vehicle crashes, an increase of 9.2% from the 1,363 crashes reported in December 2017. While total collisions and the number of people injured rose, the number of fatalities decreased from 7 to 4 during the same period. This represents a 42.9% year-over-year reduction in traffic deaths, marking the most significant shift in the data.
1,489
▲ 9.2%was 1,363
Total Crash Events
4
▼ -42.9%was 7
Persons Killed
847
▲ 17.2%was 723
Persons Injured
4
▼ -42.9%was 7
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (4) 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 · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data from December 2018 indicates an upward trend in collisions compared to the previous year. Total crashes rose by 9.2%, from 1,363 to 1,489, and total injuries increased by 17.1%, from 723 to 847. Despite this increase in overall crash volume and injuries, the number of fatalities saw a notable decline, dropping from 7 in December 2017 to 4 in December 2018.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
2
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes showed some shifts between December 2017 and December 2018. The peak day for collisions moved from Wednesday (233 crashes) in 2017 to Thursday (250 crashes) in 2018. However, the peak hour for crashes remained consistent, with the 6 PM hour recording the highest number of incidents in both years, tallying exactly 127 crashes in each period.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes increased, the severity distribution shifted year-over-year. The proportion of fatal crashes decreased from 0.5% of all collisions in December 2017 to 0.3% in December 2018. Conversely, the share of serious injury crashes increased from 1.8% to 2.3% of the total. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injuries saw a slight decrease from 52.9% in the prior year to 51.6% in the current period.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
Year-over-year, the distribution of crashes across different speed zones remained relatively stable, with collisions increasing across most zones in line with the overall trend. Crashes in zones with speed limits of 55 mph or higher increased from 331 to 363, representing a slight proportional increase from 36.0% to 36.6% of all crashes with speed data. The locations of fatal crashes shifted; in December 2017, fatalities were recorded in zones ranging from 30 mph to 65 mph, while in December 2018, the two fatal crashes with speed data occurred in 45 mph and 65 mph zones.
Fatal crashes by zone: 45 mph: 1 of 170 (0.588%) · 65 mph: 1 of 100 (1%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · 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: 2018-12-01 through 2018-12-31
- Report generated: July 5, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-12-01 through 2018-12-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,489
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 2018." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31. 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-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: 2018-12-01 – 2018-12-31
Generated: July 5, 2026 · All rights reserved