Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,075 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
DECEMBER 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2021

In December 2022, Austin recorded 1,075 total traffic crashes, a 5.5% decrease from the 1,137 crashes reported in December 2021. Despite the overall reduction in collisions, the number of fatalities increased significantly during this period. There were 15 fatalities in December 2022, a 50% rise from the 10 fatalities documented in the same month of the previous year.

1,075

▼ -5.5%was 1,137

Total Crash Events

15

▲ 50.0%was 10

Persons Killed

669

▼ -5.5%was 708

Persons Injured

13

▲ 44.4%was 9

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (15) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (13) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for December shows a downward trend in the total number of crashes and injuries in Austin. Total crashes fell by 5.5% from 1,137 to 1,075, and total injuries declined by a similar margin of 5.5% from 708 to 669. However, this trend did not extend to crash fatalities, which saw a substantial 50% increase from 10 in December 2021 to 15 in December 2022.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

7

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 8↓-12.5%

5

Motorists Killed

Prior: 2↑150.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The time patterns of crashes showed some year-over-year changes. The peak day for crashes shifted from Friday, with 203 incidents in December 2021, to Thursday, with 196 incidents in December 2022. The peak hour for collisions, however, remained consistent at 6 p.m. for both periods, with 83 crashes at that hour in December 2022 compared to 88 in the prior year.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the total number of crashes decreased, their severity profile shifted. The proportion of fatal crashes increased from 0.8% (9 incidents) of all crashes in December 2021 to 1.2% (13 incidents) in December 2022. Conversely, the share of serious injury crashes declined from 3.2% (36 incidents) to 2.3% (25 incidents). The percentage of crashes resulting in no injury increased from 47.7% to 50.6% year-over-year.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 13 fatal crash events resulted in 15 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal13fatal crashes1.2%
↑44.4%prior 9
Serious Injury25serious injury crashes2.3%
↓-30.6%prior 36
Minor Injury190minor injury crashes17.7%
↓-10.0%prior 211
Possible Injury237possible injury crashes22%
↓-3.3%prior 245
Injury66minor injury crashes6.1%
↓-29.8%prior 94
No Injury544no injury crashes50.6%
↑0.4%prior 542

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crash distribution across speed zones saw minor changes, with 35 mph zones having the most crashes (161) in December 2022, compared to 45 mph zones in the prior year (176). The location of fatal crashes shifted notably; 45 mph zones accounted for the most fatalities in December 2022 with 4, up from just one in December 2021. Meanwhile, zones with 55 mph and 70 mph speed limits, which each had two fatal crashes in December 2021, recorded zero in December 2022.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 161 (0.621%) · 40 mph: 1 of 54 (1.852%) · 45 mph: 4 of 155 (2.581%) · 50 mph: 1 of 75 (1.333%) · 60 mph: 2 of 57 (3.509%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · 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: 2022-12-01 through 2022-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-12-01 through 2022-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,075

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 2022." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31. 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-2022-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

Austin, TX Crash Report — December 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com