Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,104 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
JANUARY 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstJanuary 2021

In January 2022, Austin recorded 1,104 total traffic crashes, a 6.8% increase from the 1,034 crashes documented in January 2021. Despite the rise in overall collisions, the number of fatalities decreased from 9 in the prior year to 6 in the current period. The most notable year-over-year shift was this divergence between the trend in total crashes, which rose, and the trend in crash fatalities, which fell.

1,104

▲ 6.8%was 1,034

Total Crash Events

6

▼ -33.3%was 9

Persons Killed

658

▲ 16.0%was 567

Persons Injured

5

▼ -37.5%was 8

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (5) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for January indicates a rising trend in total traffic incidents and resulting injuries. Total crashes increased by 6.8% from 1,034 to 1,104, while total injuries rose by 16.0% from 567 to 658. In contrast, traffic fatalities declined by 33.3%, with 6 deaths recorded in January 2022 compared to 9 in January 2021.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

3

Motorists Killed

Prior: 5↓-40.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between January 2021 and January 2022. The peak day for crashes moved from Friday, with 170 incidents in the prior year, to Monday, with 199 incidents in the current year. Concurrently, the peak hour for collisions shifted an hour earlier from 6 PM (91 crashes) in 2021 to 5 PM (72 crashes) in 2022.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The overall severity of crashes decreased from the prior year, even as the total number of crashes increased. The number of fatal crashes dropped from 8 to 5, and the corresponding fatal crash rate per 100 collisions declined from 0.77% to 0.45%. The proportion of crashes resulting in a serious injury also saw a slight reduction, from 3.3% of all crashes in January 2021 to 2.8% in January 2022.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 5 fatal crash events resulted in 6 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal5fatal crashes0.5%
↓-37.5%prior 8
Serious Injury31serious injury crashes2.8%
↓-8.8%prior 34
Minor Injury186minor injury crashes16.8%
↑6.3%prior 175
Possible Injury227possible injury crashes20.6%
↑5.1%prior 216
Injury82minor injury crashes7.4%
↓-3.5%prior 85
No Injury573no injury crashes51.9%
↑11.0%prior 516

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crash distribution across speed zones changed year-over-year, with a notable increase in incidents on roads with both lower and higher speed limits. In January 2022, the highest number of crashes occurred in 35 mph zones (184 crashes), a shift from the prior year when 45 mph zones saw the most crashes (140). While January 2021 saw 3 fatalities in the 45 mph zone, there were zero in that zone in January 2022; fatalities in the current period were more dispersed across various speed zones, including one in a 35 mph zone and two in 55 mph zones.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 184 (0.543%) · 55 mph: 2 of 133 (1.504%) · 60 mph: 1 of 57 (1.754%) · 65 mph: 1 of 131 (0.763%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · 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: 2022-01-01 through 2022-01-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-01-01 through 2022-01-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,104

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 2022." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31. 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-2022-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 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com