Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,286 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MARCH 2015

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2014

In March 2015, Austin recorded 1,286 traffic crashes, a 1% increase from the 1,273 crashes in March 2014. While the overall crash volume remained relatively stable, the number of fatalities increased significantly, rising from 3 in the prior year to 10 in the current period. This represents a 233% year-over-year increase in traffic deaths for the month.

1,286

▲ 1.0%was 1,273

Total Crash Events

10

▲ 233.3%was 3

Persons Killed

868

▼ -9.0%was 954

Persons Injured

11

▲ 266.7%was 3

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (10) 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 · 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year, the total number of crashes in Austin remained nearly stable, increasing by approximately 1% from 1,273 in March 2014 to 1,286 in March 2015. However, the severity of these crashes shifted, with total fatalities rising by 233% from 3 to 10. Conversely, the total number of reported injuries decreased by 9% from 954 to 868.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

4

Motorists Killed

Prior: 0→%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · 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 2014 and March 2015. The day with the highest number of crashes moved from Saturday (250 crashes) in the prior year to Monday (209 crashes) in the current year. Similarly, the peak hour for crashes shifted from 6 PM (91 crashes) to 5 PM (109 crashes), coinciding with the evening commute.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes increased in March 2015 compared to the same month in 2014. The number of fatal crashes rose from 3 to 11, and their share of all crashes increased from 0.2% to 0.9%. Crashes resulting in serious injuries also grew from 28 to 40, with their proportion of all crashes increasing from 2.2% to 3.1%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 11 fatal crash events resulted in 10 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal11fatal crashes0.9%
↑266.7%prior 3
Serious Injury40serious injury crashes3.1%
↑42.9%prior 28
Minor Injury263minor injury crashes20.5%
↓-13.8%prior 305
Possible Injury278possible injury crashes21.6%
↓-4.8%prior 292
Injury98minor injury crashes7.6%
↑7.7%prior 91
No Injury596no injury crashes46.3%
↑7.6%prior 554

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

In March 2015, there was an increase in crashes occurring in higher speed zones, with collisions in zones of 60 mph or greater rising from 171 to 206 year-over-year. All 10 fatalities in March 2015 occurred in speed zones of 45 mph or higher, compared to all 3 fatalities in the prior year. The most significant increase was in the 55 mph zone, which saw crashes with fatalities rise from one to five.

Fatal crashes by zone: 45 mph: 3 of 166 (1.807%) · 50 mph: 1 of 67 (1.493%) · 55 mph: 5 of 125 (4%) · 65 mph: 1 of 65 (1.538%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · 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: 2015-03-01 through 2015-03-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2015-03-01 through 2015-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,286

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 2015." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31. 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-2015-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 2015 | ThatCarHitMe.com