Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

877 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
JULY 2020

All metrics benchmarked againstJuly 2019

In July 2020, Austin recorded 877 total vehicle crashes, a 36.8% decrease from the 1,387 crashes documented in July 2019. Despite the significant drop in overall collisions and a corresponding 33.8% decline in injuries, the number of fatalities rose from 7 to 12 year-over-year. This indicates a substantial increase in the lethality of crashes, even as their total frequency decreased.

877

▼ -36.8%was 1,387

Total Crash Events

12

▲ 71.4%was 7

Persons Killed

605

▼ -33.8%was 914

Persons Injured

11

▲ 37.5%was 8

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (12) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (11) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for July shows a significant downward trend in the total number of crashes, which fell by 36.8% from 1,387 in 2019 to 877 in 2020. Similarly, the number of persons injured in these incidents decreased by 33.8%. However, this trend did not extend to crash lethality, as total fatalities increased by 71.4%, from 7 to 12.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

5

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 5→0.0%

7

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1↑600.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · 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. In July 2019, the peak day for crashes was Monday with 263 incidents, whereas in July 2020, the peak shifted to Friday with 183 incidents. A similar change occurred with the peak hour for collisions, moving from 5 p.m. in 2019 (122 crashes) to 3 p.m. in 2020 (80 crashes).

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Although total crashes declined, the proportion of fatal crashes more than doubled, increasing from 0.6% of all incidents in July 2019 to 1.3% in July 2020. The share of crashes resulting in serious injuries decreased from 3.4% to 2.7% year-over-year. Conversely, the proportion of crashes involving minor or possible injuries saw a combined increase, rising from 41.8% in the prior year to 45.2% in the current year.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 11 fatal crash events resulted in 12 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal11fatal crashes1.3%
↑37.5%prior 8
Serious Injury24serious injury crashes2.7%
↓-48.9%prior 47
Minor Injury201minor injury crashes22.9%
↓-32.1%prior 296
Possible Injury196possible injury crashes22.3%
↓-31.2%prior 285
Injury71minor injury crashes8.1%
↓-29.0%prior 100
No Injury374no injury crashes42.6%
↓-42.5%prior 651

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crash distribution across speed zones remained broadly consistent year-over-year, with the largest number of incidents in both periods occurring in 30-45 mph zones. However, the lethality of crashes in higher speed zones increased. In July 2020, fatal crashes were recorded across a wider range of high-speed zones from 40 mph to 75 mph, compared to July 2019 when they were concentrated at 45 mph and 60 mph. The rate of fatal crashes in zones with speed limits of 70 mph or higher increased from 2.1% in July 2019 to 7.1% in July 2020.

Fatal crashes by zone: 40 mph: 1 of 43 (2.326%) · 45 mph: 1 of 133 (0.752%) · 50 mph: 1 of 34 (2.941%) · 55 mph: 2 of 78 (2.564%) · 65 mph: 1 of 45 (2.222%) · 70 mph: 2 of 37 (5.405%) · 75 mph: 1 of 5 (20%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31 · 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: 2020-07-01 through 2020-07-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-07-01 through 2020-07-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 877

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: July 2020." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-07-01 to 2020-07-31. 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/july-2020-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

Austin, TX Crash Report — July 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com