Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,356 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MARCH 2012

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2011

In March 2012, Austin recorded 1,356 vehicle crashes, a 27.3% increase from the 1,065 crashes reported in March 2011. This period also saw a significant rise in traffic fatalities, which increased from 2 to 7 year-over-year. Total reported injuries also rose by 24.1%, from 822 to 1,020.

1,356

27.3%was 1,065

Total Crash Events

7

250.0%was 2

Persons Killed

1,020

24.1%was 822

Persons Injured

7

250.0%was 2

Fatal Crash Events

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

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash data for March 2012 indicates a significant upward trend compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes increased by 27.3%, from 1,065 to 1,356. Similarly, the number of people injured rose by 24.1%, and the number of fatalities increased from 2 in March 2011 to 7 in March 2012.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

3

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 20.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31 · 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 March 2011 and March 2012. While the evening commute hour of 5 p.m. remained the peak time for crashes in both years, the peak day for incidents moved from Tuesday (184 crashes) in 2011 to Friday (250 crashes) in 2012. The data for March 2012 shows a higher concentration of crashes occurring on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, compared to a more mid-week concentration in the prior year.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes worsened in March 2012 compared to the previous year. The number of fatal crashes increased from 2 to 7, and the fatal crash rate more than doubled from 0.19% to 0.52%. While the proportion of serious injury crashes remained steady at approximately 3.0%, the share of non-injury crashes also increased from 39.3% to 41.7% of all incidents.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.5%
250.0%prior 2
Serious Injury40serious injury crashes2.9%
25.0%prior 32
Minor Injury313minor injury crashes23.1%
15.5%prior 271
Possible Injury315possible injury crashes23.2%
19.3%prior 264
Injury115minor injury crashes8.5%
49.4%prior 77
No Injury566no injury crashes41.7%
35.1%prior 419

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes increased across most speed zones year-over-year, with the most substantial rise occurring in the 50–60 mph range, which saw 58 more incidents for a total of 262 crashes in March 2012. Fatal crashes also occurred in a wider range of speed zones compared to the prior year. While all fatalities in March 2011 were on roads with speed limits of 55 mph or higher, the fatal crashes in March 2012 were distributed across zones with posted limits ranging from 20 mph to 70 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 4 (25%) · 35 mph: 1 of 194 (0.515%) · 45 mph: 2 of 173 (1.156%) · 55 mph: 1 of 118 (0.847%) · 70 mph: 1 of 28 (3.571%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31 · 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: 2012-03-01 through 2012-03-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2012-03-01 through 2012-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,356

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: March 2012." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2012-03-01 to 2012-03-31. 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/march-2012-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 — March 2012 | ThatCarHitMe.com