ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · MAY 2018
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
Authentication: None required. Public endpoint.
GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/texas/austin/may-2018-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,499 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MAY 2018
In May 2018, Austin recorded 1,499 total vehicle crashes, a 6.9% increase from the 1,402 crashes reported in May 2017. Total injuries also rose from 846 to 956 over the same period. The most significant year-over-year change was the number of fatalities, which doubled from two in May 2017 to four in May 2018.
1,499
▲ 6.9%was 1,402
Total Crash Events
4
▲ 100.0%was 2
Persons Killed
956
▲ 13.0%was 846
Persons Injured
4
▲ 33.3%was 3
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (4) 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 · 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Comparing May 2018 to the same month in the prior year, the overall trend shows an increase in traffic collisions and their consequences. Total crashes rose by 6.9%, from 1,402 to 1,499. The number of people injured increased by 13.0% from 846 to 956, and total fatalities doubled from two to four.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
2
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31 · 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 May 2017 and May 2018. The peak day for crashes moved from Tuesday (238 crashes) in the prior year to Friday (266 crashes) in the current period. However, the peak hour for collisions remained consistent, with the 5 p.m. hour having the highest volume in both years (120 and 122 crashes, respectively). Crashes on weekdays from Tuesday through Friday increased year-over-year, while crashes on Sunday and Monday decreased.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes shifted slightly year-over-year. The rate of fatal crashes increased from 0.21 per 100 crashes in May 2017 to 0.27 in May 2018. While the proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries decreased slightly from 3.5% to 3.2%, the share of crashes involving minor injuries saw a notable increase, rising from 17.9% to 21.5% of all incidents. Crashes with no injuries accounted for 47.6% of the total in May 2018, down from 50.1% in the prior year.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in May 2018 saw an increase in several speed zones compared to the prior year, particularly in 30-35 mph zones (341 vs. 314) and zones 65 mph or higher (156 vs. 128). Conversely, crashes in 40-45 mph zones decreased from 289 to 269. The distribution of fatal crashes also changed; in May 2017, all three fatal crashes with a recorded speed limit occurred in 40-45 mph zones. In May 2018, the three fatal crashes with recorded speed limits were distributed across 35 mph, 45 mph, and 60 mph zones.
Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 235 (0.426%) · 45 mph: 1 of 178 (0.562%) · 60 mph: 1 of 62 (1.613%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31 · 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: 2018-05-01 through 2018-05-31
- Report generated: July 5, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-05-01 through 2018-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,499
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: May 2018." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-05-01 to 2018-05-31. 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/may-2018-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata
Period: 2018-05-01 – 2018-05-31
Generated: July 5, 2026 · All rights reserved