ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · DECEMBER 2023
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-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,037 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
DECEMBER 2023
In December 2023, Austin recorded 1,037 motor vehicle crashes, a 3.5% decrease from the 1,075 crashes reported in December 2022. The number of people killed in crashes fell from 15 in the prior year period to 10 in the current period, representing a 33.3% reduction. While total crashes saw a modest decline, the most significant change was this drop in traffic fatalities.
1,037
▼ -3.5%was 1,075
Total Crash Events
10
▼ -33.3%was 15
Persons Killed
648
▼ -3.1%was 669
Persons Injured
9
▼ -30.8%was 13
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (10) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (9) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crash trends in Austin showed a slight decline in December 2023 compared to the same month in 2022. The total number of crashes fell by 3.5%, from 1,075 to 1,037. Similarly, total injuries decreased by 3.1% from 669 to 648, and fatalities saw a significant 33.3% drop from 15 to 10.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
6
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Cyclists Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes showed some shifts between December 2022 and December 2023. The peak day for collisions moved from Thursday (196 crashes) in the prior year to Friday (212 crashes) in the current period. The peak hour for crashes remained consistent at 6 p.m. in both years, though the number of crashes during this hour decreased from 83 to 75.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Crash severity improved in December 2023 compared to the previous year, with the fatal crash rate decreasing from 1.21% to 0.87% of all collisions. The number of fatal crashes fell from 13 to 9. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injury remained relatively stable at 2.5% compared to 2.3% in the prior year, while crashes involving minor injuries increased from 17.7% to 20.0% of all incidents.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 9 fatal crash events resulted in 10 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
In December 2023, a higher number of crashes occurred in zones with posted speed limits of 55 mph or lower compared to the previous year. Collisions in zones between 40 and 55 mph increased from 385 to 437, while crashes in zones 35 mph or less increased from 255 to 297. In December 2022, the 45 mph speed zone accounted for the most fatal crashes with 4 incidents, whereas in December 2023, the highest number of fatal crashes in a single speed zone was 2, occurring in the 50 mph zone.
Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 167 (0.599%) · 40 mph: 1 of 72 (1.389%) · 45 mph: 1 of 190 (0.526%) · 50 mph: 2 of 48 (4.167%) · 55 mph: 1 of 127 (0.787%) · 60 mph: 1 of 61 (1.639%) · 65 mph: 1 of 125 (0.8%) · 70 mph: 1 of 36 (2.778%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · 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: 2023-12-01 through 2023-12-31
- Report generated: July 6, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-12-01 through 2023-12-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,037
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 2023." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31. 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-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata
Period: 2023-12-01 – 2023-12-31
Generated: July 6, 2026 · All rights reserved