ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · JANUARY 2021
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/january-2021-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,034 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
JANUARY 2021
In January 2021, Austin recorded 1,034 total crashes, a 22.0% decrease from the 1,325 crashes reported in January 2020. This year-over-year decline was also reflected in total injuries, which fell 23.5% from 741 to 567. Despite the overall drop in incidents, the number of fatalities remained relatively stable, with 9 deaths in January 2021 compared to 11 in the prior year.
1,034
▼ -22.0%was 1,325
Total Crash Events
9
▼ -18.2%was 11
Persons Killed
567
▼ -23.5%was 741
Persons Injured
8
▼ -27.3%was 11
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 · 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data for January 2021 indicates a significant downward trend compared to the same month in the previous year. Total crashes fell by 22.0%, from 1,325 to 1,034. Similarly, the number of people injured in these incidents decreased by 23.5%, while fatalities saw a smaller decline from 11 to 9.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
5
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Cyclists Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes in January 2021 showed some changes compared to January 2020, although the peak day and hour remained consistent. Friday was the day with the most crashes in both periods (170 in 2021 vs. 247 in 2020), and 6 p.m. was the peak hour (91 crashes in 2021 vs. 103 in 2020). However, the morning commute peak between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. was substantially lower in 2021, with 91 crashes, compared to 174 during the same hours in the prior year.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While the total number of crashes decreased year-over-year, the severity distribution showed a notable shift. The proportion of fatal crashes remained constant at 0.8% for both January 2021 and January 2020. However, the share of crashes resulting in a serious injury increased from 2.0% (26 crashes) in the prior year to 3.3% (34 crashes) in the current period. Conversely, the proportion of crashes with minor injuries decreased from 19.5% to 16.9%.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 8 fatal crash events resulted in 9 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
The distribution of crashes across different speed zones remained largely consistent between January 2020 and January 2021, with a general decrease in crash counts across all zones. Crashes in zones between 40 and 55 mph constituted the largest share in both periods, accounting for 44.0% of crashes with a recorded speed limit in the prior year and increasing slightly to 45.6% in the current year. In January 2021, all 6 fatal crashes with a recorded speed limit occurred in zones of 45 mph or higher, whereas in January 2020, fatal crashes were recorded across a wider range of speed zones, including one in a 35 mph zone.
Fatal crashes by zone: 45 mph: 3 of 140 (2.143%) · 65 mph: 1 of 78 (1.282%) · 70 mph: 1 of 23 (4.348%) · 75 mph: 1 of 7 (14.286%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31 · 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: 2021-01-01 through 2021-01-31
- Report generated: July 6, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2021-01-01 through 2021-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,034
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 2021." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-31. 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-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
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata
Period: 2021-01-01 – 2021-01-31
Generated: July 6, 2026 · All rights reserved