ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · JANUARY 2026
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-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
738 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
JANUARY 2026
In January 2026, Austin recorded 738 total traffic crashes, a 23.4% decrease from the 963 crashes reported in January 2025. While total crashes and injuries saw a significant decline, the number of fatalities increased from 5 to 6 year-over-year. The most notable shift was the substantial reduction in total collisions, which fell by 225 incidents.
738
▼ -23.4%was 963
Total Crash Events
6
▲ 20.0%was 5
Persons Killed
443
▼ -27.5%was 611
Persons Injured
6
▲ 20.0%was 5
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (6) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Traffic safety metrics showed a significant downward trend in January 2026 compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes decreased by 23.4%, from 963 to 738, and total reported injuries fell by 27.5%, from 611 to 443. In contrast to this trend, the number of fatalities increased by one, from 5 in January 2025 to 6 in January 2026.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
2
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · 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 the two periods. The peak day for collisions moved from Thursday (163 crashes) in January 2025 to Saturday (134 crashes) in January 2026, indicating a change from a weekday to a weekend concentration. While the peak hour for crashes remained 6 p.m. in both periods, the number of incidents during that hour decreased from 77 to 56.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Comparing January 2026 to January 2025, the proportion of fatal crashes relative to all crashes increased from 0.5% to 0.8%, with the absolute count rising from 5 to 6. The percentage of crashes resulting in no injury also increased, from 48.6% to 50.1%. The share of serious injury crashes remained stable at 1.8% for both periods, though the count of these incidents decreased from 17 to 13.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
In January 2026, the distribution of crashes across speed zones showed a decrease in collisions in several key areas compared to the previous year. Crashes in the 35 mph zone dropped from 161 to 126, and those in the 45 mph zone fell from 133 to 114. In the current period, fatal crashes were recorded in the 35 mph (2 fatalities), 45 mph (3 fatalities), and 60 mph (1 fatality) zones, whereas in the prior period, fatalities occurred in the 35 mph (1 fatality), 45 mph (2 fatalities), and 55 mph (1 fatality) zones.
Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 2 of 126 (1.587%) · 45 mph: 3 of 114 (2.632%) · 60 mph: 1 of 41 (2.439%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · 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: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31
- Report generated: July 6, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 738
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 2026." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31. 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-2026-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: 2026-01-01 – 2026-01-31
Generated: July 6, 2026 · All rights reserved