Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,349 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
FEBRUARY 2016

All metrics benchmarked againstFebruary 2015

In February 2016, Austin recorded 1,349 vehicle crashes, an 18.9% increase from the 1,135 crashes reported in February 2015. Total injuries rose by 22.9% from 685 to 842, while fatalities increased from 5 to 6. The most significant proportional change was an 84.6% increase in motorcycle-involved crashes, which rose from 26 to 48 incidents year-over-year.

1,349

▲ 18.9%was 1,135

Total Crash Events

6

▲ 20.0%was 5

Persons Killed

842

▲ 22.9%was 685

Persons Injured

7

▲ 40.0%was 5

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (6) 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 · 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Comparing February 2016 to the same month in the prior year, the overall trend in traffic incidents is upward. Total crashes increased by 18.9%, rising from 1,135 to 1,349. Similarly, the number of people injured in these crashes grew by 22.9% from 685 to 842, and total fatalities increased from 5 to 6.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1↑100.0%

1

Motorists Killed

Prior: 4↓-75.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal distribution of crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with Friday being the most frequent day for crashes in both February 2016 (215 crashes) and February 2015 (195 crashes). The 5 p.m. hour was also the peak hour in both periods, with crash counts increasing from 81 to 117. While the peak times did not shift, the volume of crashes during the weekday evening commute (4 p.m. to 6 p.m.) increased from 225 to 309 incidents.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes shifted in February 2016 compared to the previous year. The number of fatal crashes rose from 5 to 7, and the fatal crash rate increased from 0.44% to 0.52% of all crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries also grew from 2.7% (31 crashes) to 3.2% (43 crashes), while the share of minor injury crashes decreased from 20.1% to 16.3%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 7 fatal crash events resulted in 6 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.5%
↑40.0%prior 5
Serious Injury43serious injury crashes3.2%
↑38.7%prior 31
Minor Injury220minor injury crashes16.3%
↓-3.5%prior 228
Possible Injury313possible injury crashes23.2%
↑39.7%prior 224
Injury100minor injury crashes7.4%
↑12.4%prior 89
No Injury666no injury crashes49.4%
↑19.4%prior 558

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crash incidents increased across all speed zones in February 2016 compared to the prior year. The distribution of fatal crashes shifted notably between the two periods. In February 2015, all fatal crashes with speed limit data occurred in zones of 45 mph or higher. In contrast, during February 2016, four of the five fatal crashes with associated speed data occurred in lower-speed zones of 30-35 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 123 (0.813%) · 35 mph: 3 of 218 (1.376%) · 55 mph: 1 of 145 (0.69%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29 · 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: 2016-02-01 through 2016-02-29
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2016-02-01 through 2016-02-29 (29 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,349

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: February 2016." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-02-01 to 2016-02-29. 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/february-2016-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 — February 2016 | ThatCarHitMe.com