Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,153 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MARCH 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2021

In March 2022, Austin recorded 1,153 total crashes, an 18.3% increase from the 975 crashes reported in March 2021. The total number of injuries also rose from 639 to 779 during this period. The most significant year-over-year change was in fatalities, which increased from 2 in the prior period to 8 in the current period, a 300% rise.

1,153

18.3%was 975

Total Crash Events

8

300.0%was 2

Persons Killed

779

21.9%was 639

Persons Injured

8

166.7%was 3

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (8) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (8) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash trends in Austin showed a notable increase in March 2022 compared to the same month in the previous year. Total crashes rose by 18.3%, from 975 to 1,153. This upward trend was also reflected in the number of persons injured, which increased by 21.9% from 639 to 779, and total fatalities, which quadrupled from 2 to 8.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

3

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1200.0%

1

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1100.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

A comparison of crash timing shows a shift in the most frequent day for collisions. In March 2022, Thursday was the peak day with 185 crashes, whereas Wednesday was the peak day in March 2021 with 160 crashes. The peak hour for crashes remained consistent year-over-year, occurring at 5 p.m. in both periods, with 79 crashes in the current period compared to 75 in the prior.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes worsened in March 2022 compared to the prior year. The fatal crash rate more than doubled, increasing from 0.31% to 0.69% of all crashes. While the proportion of serious injury crashes remained stable at 3.6%, the share of minor injury crashes grew from 17.5% to 20.4%. Correspondingly, the proportion of crashes resulting in no injury decreased from 46.5% in March 2021 to 44.3% in March 2022.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal8fatal crashes0.7%
166.7%prior 3
Serious Injury41serious injury crashes3.6%
17.1%prior 35
Minor Injury235minor injury crashes20.4%
37.4%prior 171
Possible Injury261possible injury crashes22.6%
11.1%prior 235
Injury97minor injury crashes8.4%
24.4%prior 78
No Injury511no injury crashes44.3%
12.8%prior 453

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crash distribution across speed zones shifted towards higher-speed roads in March 2022 compared to the previous year. The number of crashes in 40-45 mph zones increased from 131 to 244, and collisions on roads with speed limits of 65 mph or more rose from 127 to 194. A significant change was observed in fatal crashes by speed zone; in March 2022, 7 fatal crashes occurred on roads with posted speed limits of 35 mph or higher, whereas no fatal crashes were recorded in any specific speed zone in the data for March 2021.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 2 of 189 (1.058%) · 45 mph: 1 of 172 (0.581%) · 55 mph: 1 of 92 (1.087%) · 65 mph: 2 of 135 (1.481%) · 70 mph: 1 of 54 (1.852%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · 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: 2022-03-01 through 2022-03-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-03-01 through 2022-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,153

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 2022." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31. 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-2022-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 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com