Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

975 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MARCH 2021

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2020

In March 2021, Austin recorded 975 total vehicle crashes, a 9.0% decrease from the 1,071 crashes reported in March 2020. This year-over-year comparison shows a notable reduction in severe outcomes, with total fatalities falling by 50% from 4 to 2. Total injuries also saw a slight decrease of 3.3%, from 661 in the prior period to 639 in the current period.

975

▼ -9.0%was 1,071

Total Crash Events

2

▼ -50.0%was 4

Persons Killed

639

▼ -3.3%was 661

Persons Injured

3

▼ -25.0%was 4

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (2) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, traffic crash data for March 2021 indicates a downward trend compared to the same month in the prior year. The total number of crashes fell by 96 incidents, from 1,071 in March 2020 to 975 in March 2021. This decline was accompanied by a 3.3% reduction in total injuries and a 50% drop in fatalities.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1→0.0%

1

Motorists Killed

Prior: 3↓-66.7%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed some changes between March 2020 and March 2021. The peak day for crashes shifted from Monday (179 crashes) in the prior year to Wednesday (160 crashes) in the current period. While the peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 5 PM in both years, the number of crashes during that hour decreased from 89 to 75.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes shifted slightly year-over-year, with the proportion of fatal crashes decreasing from 0.4% to 0.3% of all incidents. Crashes resulting in serious injuries remained proportionally stable, accounting for 3.6% of crashes in March 2021 compared to 3.5% in March 2020. However, the share of crashes involving 'Possible Injury' increased from 21.5% to 24.1%, while the proportion of 'No Injury' crashes fell from 49.4% to 46.5%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 3 fatal crash events resulted in 2 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal3fatal crashes0.3%
↓-25.0%prior 4
Serious Injury35serious injury crashes3.6%
↓-5.4%prior 37
Minor Injury171minor injury crashes17.5%
↓-11.9%prior 194
Possible Injury235possible injury crashes24.1%
↑2.2%prior 230
Injury78minor injury crashes8%
↑1.3%prior 77
No Injury453no injury crashes46.5%
↓-14.4%prior 529

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

A comparison of crashes by speed zone shows a shift in distribution between the two periods. Crashes in 40–45 mph zones decreased from 174 to 131, while those in zones marked 65 mph or more increased from 110 to 127. In March 2020, fatal crashes were recorded in zones with posted speed limits of 35 mph, 45 mph, and 55 mph. In contrast, for March 2021, the available data does not record any fatal crashes within these specific speed zone categories.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · 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: 2021-03-01 through 2021-03-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2021-03-01 through 2021-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 975

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 2021." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31. 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-2021-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 2021 | ThatCarHitMe.com