Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,080 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
JULY 2023

All metrics benchmarked againstJuly 2022

In July 2023, Austin recorded 1,080 total vehicle crashes, a slight decrease from the 1,093 crashes reported in July 2022. While the overall number of crashes fell by approximately 1.2%, the number of fatalities more than doubled, increasing from 3 in the prior year period to 7 in the current period. This increase in fatalities occurred even as the number of fatal crashes remained unchanged at 4 for both periods.

1,080

▼ -1.2%was 1,093

Total Crash Events

7

▲ 133.3%was 3

Persons Killed

736

▼ -9.6%was 814

Persons Injured

4

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (7) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (4) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year, the total number of crashes in Austin remained relatively stable, decreasing by about 1.2% from 1,093 in July 2022 to 1,080 in July 2023. The number of injuries saw a more significant decline of 9.6%, falling from 814 to 736. This downward trend in crashes and injuries was contrasted by a sharp rise in fatalities, which increased from 3 to 7 over the same period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1→0.0%

4

Motorists Killed

Prior: 2↑100.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed some shifts between July 2022 and July 2023. Friday remained the peak day for crashes in both periods, though the total count on that day decreased from 217 to 179. The peak hour for crashes shifted slightly earlier, from 5 p.m. in 2022 (77 crashes) to 4 p.m. in 2023 (91 crashes). While weekend crash totals decreased, Monday saw a notable increase in incidents, rising from 132 to 179.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The distribution of crash severity shifted year-over-year, showing a decrease in the proportion of injury-related incidents. The number of fatal crashes remained constant at 4, accounting for 0.4% of all crashes in both July 2022 and July 2023. However, crashes resulting in serious injuries were nearly halved, dropping from 49 (4.5% of total) to 25 (2.3%). Correspondingly, the proportion of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 44.1% to 46.8%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 4 fatal crash events resulted in 7 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal4fatal crashes0.4%
→0.0%prior 4
Serious Injury25serious injury crashes2.3%
↓-49.0%prior 49
Minor Injury237minor injury crashes21.9%
↓-3.7%prior 246
Possible Injury230possible injury crashes21.3%
↓-0.9%prior 232
Injury79minor injury crashes7.3%
↓-1.3%prior 80
No Injury505no injury crashes46.8%
↑4.8%prior 482

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

The distribution of crashes across different speed zones remained broadly similar year-over-year, with the 35 mph zone seeing an increase in incidents from 170 to 195. The location of fatal crashes shifted notably between the two periods. In July 2022, all 4 fatal crashes occurred in zones of 45 mph or higher. In contrast, July 2023 saw one fatal crash in a 25 mph zone and three in a 45 mph zone, indicating a concentration of fatal incidents at or below 45 mph for the current period.

Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 31 (3.226%) · 45 mph: 3 of 175 (1.714%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31 · 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: 2023-07-01 through 2023-07-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2023-07-01 through 2023-07-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,080

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 2023." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-07-01 to 2023-07-31. 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-2023-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 — July 2023 | ThatCarHitMe.com