Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,076 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
JANUARY 2013

All metrics benchmarked againstJanuary 2012

In January 2013, Austin recorded 1,076 traffic crashes, a slight decrease from the 1,087 crashes reported in January 2012. Despite this marginal drop in total incidents, the number of fatalities rose significantly by 50%, from 6 to 9 year-over-year. Concurrently, total injuries saw a substantial decline of 19.1%, falling from 944 to 764.

1,076

▼ -1.0%was 1,087

Total Crash Events

9

▲ 50.0%was 6

Persons Killed

764

▼ -19.1%was 944

Persons Injured

8

▲ 33.3%was 6

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (9) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (8) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic crash volume in Austin remained relatively stable between January 2012 and January 2013, with a minor 1.0% decrease from 1,087 to 1,076 incidents. However, the outcomes of these crashes shifted notably, as total fatalities increased by 50% from 6 to 9. In contrast, the number of persons injured in crashes decreased by 19.1% over the same period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

6

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1↑500.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

Comparing temporal patterns, the peak day for crashes shifted from Friday in January 2012, with 191 crashes, to Tuesday in January 2013, with 196 crashes. The peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 6 PM for both periods. However, the volume of crashes during this peak hour declined from 101 in the prior year to 85 in the current year.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes shifted year-over-year, with the fatal crash rate increasing from 0.55 to 0.74 per 100 crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in a serious injury also rose from 3.0% to 3.5%. Conversely, crashes resulting in minor injuries decreased as a share of the total, from 24.5% in January 2012 to 22.5% in January 2013, while non-injury crashes increased from 41.9% to 42.9% of all incidents.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 8 fatal crash events resulted in 9 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal8fatal crashes0.7%
↑33.3%prior 6
Serious Injury38serious injury crashes3.5%
↑15.2%prior 33
Minor Injury242minor injury crashes22.5%
↓-9.0%prior 266
Possible Injury253possible injury crashes23.5%
↑5.0%prior 241
Injury73minor injury crashes6.8%
↓-15.1%prior 86
No Injury462no injury crashes42.9%
↑1.5%prior 455

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Analysis of crashes by posted speed limit shows a shift toward higher speed zones in January 2013 compared to the previous year. The number of crashes in 40-45 mph zones increased from 183 to 219, and incidents in zones of 65 mph or more rose from 108 to 118. Fatal crashes with recorded speed limits were more concentrated in the current period, with 3 of the 6 such crashes occurring in 30 mph zones and 2 in 70 mph zones, whereas in the prior year the 6 fatal crashes were distributed across five different speed zones.

Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 11 (9.091%) · 30 mph: 3 of 119 (2.521%) · 70 mph: 2 of 38 (5.263%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · 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: 2013-01-01 through 2013-01-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2013-01-01 through 2013-01-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,076

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: January 2013." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31. 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/january-2013-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 — January 2013 | ThatCarHitMe.com