Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

922 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
JANUARY 2024

All metrics benchmarked againstJanuary 2023

In January 2024, Austin recorded 922 traffic crashes, a 23.9% decrease from the 1,211 crashes reported in January 2023. This downward trend was also reflected in crash outcomes, with total fatalities falling from 9 to 2 and total injuries decreasing from 780 to 615. The most significant year-over-year change was the reduction in fatalities, which dropped by 77.8%.

922

▼ -23.9%was 1,211

Total Crash Events

2

▼ -77.8%was 9

Persons Killed

615

▼ -21.2%was 780

Persons Injured

2

▼ -81.8%was 11

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (2) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (2) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic safety metrics improved in January 2024 compared to the same month in the previous year. Total crashes fell by 23.9%, from 1,211 to 922. Correspondingly, the number of people injured in these incidents declined by 21.2% (from 780 to 615), and fatalities saw a substantial decrease from 9 to 2.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 5↓-80.0%

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 · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed some consistency and some shifts year-over-year. Monday remained the day with the highest number of crashes in both January 2024 (167) and January 2023 (194), though the volume was lower. The peak hour for collisions shifted from 4 p.m. in the prior year (98 crashes) to 5 p.m. in the current period (63 crashes).

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes decreased in January 2024 compared to the previous year. The number of fatal crashes dropped from 11 to 2, and the proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries fell from 3.3% to 2.7%. Crashes classified with 'Possible Injury' also saw a proportional decrease from 22.0% to 19.7% of all incidents. Conversely, the share of crashes resulting in no injuries increased, rising from 47.1% in January 2023 to 50.9% in January 2024.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal2fatal crashes0.2%
↓-81.8%prior 11
Serious Injury25serious injury crashes2.7%
↓-37.5%prior 40
Minor Injury180minor injury crashes19.5%
↓-20.0%prior 225
Possible Injury182possible injury crashes19.7%
↓-31.6%prior 266
Injury64minor injury crashes6.9%
↓-35.4%prior 99
No Injury469no injury crashes50.9%
↓-17.7%prior 570

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

In January 2024, the highest number of crashes occurred in 45 mph zones (172 crashes) and 35 mph zones (149 crashes), consistent with January 2023 where these zones also saw high volumes. A notable change occurred in the distribution of fatal crashes. In January 2023, fatal incidents were recorded across multiple speed zones including 25, 30, and 40 mph, whereas the two fatal crashes in January 2024 both occurred in higher speed zones of 55 mph and 65 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 87 (1.149%) · 65 mph: 1 of 140 (0.714%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 922

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 2024." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31. 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-2024-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 2024 | ThatCarHitMe.com