Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

808 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
FEBRUARY 2021

All metrics benchmarked againstFebruary 2020

In February 2021, Austin recorded 808 total traffic crashes, a 40.5% decrease from the 1,358 crashes reported in February 2020. Despite the significant drop in overall incidents, the number of fatalities increased from 9 to 11 during the same period. The most notable year-over-year shift was the substantial reduction in total crash volume, contrasted with a rise in crash severity.

808

-40.5%was 1,358

Total Crash Events

11

22.2%was 9

Persons Killed

549

-24.7%was 729

Persons Injured

10

25.0%was 8

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (11) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (10) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for February shows a significant downward trend in overall traffic incidents. Total crashes fell by 40.5%, from 1,358 in February 2020 to 808 in February 2021. Similarly, total injuries decreased by 24.7% from 729 to 549. However, fatalities bucked this trend, increasing from 9 to 11 over the same period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 3-33.3%

2

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0%

6

Motorists Killed

Prior: 60.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · 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 the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Thursday (215 crashes) in February 2020 to Friday (151 crashes) in February 2021. While the 5 p.m. hour remained the peak time for crashes in both years, the volume during this hour dropped by nearly 50%, from 121 incidents in the prior year to 61 in the current year.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes decreased, the severity of those crashes increased year-over-year. The fatal crash rate more than doubled, rising from 0.59% in February 2020 to 1.24% in February 2021. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injury also increased from 2.0% to 3.3%. Conversely, the share of crashes with no injuries reported fell from 54.1% to 43.1%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 10 fatal crash events resulted in 11 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal10fatal crashes1.2%
25.0%prior 8
Serious Injury27serious injury crashes3.3%
0.0%prior 27
Minor Injury148minor injury crashes18.3%
-41.7%prior 254
Possible Injury198possible injury crashes24.5%
-18.9%prior 244
Injury77minor injury crashes9.5%
-14.4%prior 90
No Injury348no injury crashes43.1%
-52.7%prior 735

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes decreased across all major speed zones year-over-year, consistent with the overall trend. In February 2020, the 35 mph zone saw the highest number of incidents at 199, which dropped to 92 in February 2021. Despite the reduction in crashes, fatal incidents emerged or increased in several zones; for instance, the 35 mph zone recorded two fatal crashes in 2021 compared to none in 2020, and the 70 mph zone went from zero to two fatal crashes.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 2 of 92 (2.174%) · 45 mph: 3 of 92 (3.261%) · 60 mph: 1 of 40 (2.5%) · 65 mph: 1 of 78 (1.282%) · 70 mph: 2 of 37 (5.405%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · 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: 2021-02-01 through 2021-02-28
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2021-02-01 through 2021-02-28 (28 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 808

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 2021." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28. 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-2021-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 — February 2021 | ThatCarHitMe.com