Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,429 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MAY 2019

All metrics benchmarked againstMay 2018

In May 2019, Austin recorded 1,429 total vehicle crashes, a 4.7% decrease from the 1,499 crashes reported in May 2018. Despite the overall drop in collisions, the number of fatalities doubled year-over-year, increasing from 4 in the prior period to 8 in the current period. This increase in fatalities occurred across 9 fatal crashes in May 2019, compared to 4 fatal crashes in the same month of the previous year.

1,429

▼ -4.7%was 1,499

Total Crash Events

8

▲ 100.0%was 4

Persons Killed

922

▼ -3.6%was 956

Persons Injured

9

▲ 125.0%was 4

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (8) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (9) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash volume in Austin saw a modest decline in May 2019 compared to the previous year, with total crashes falling by 4.7% from 1,499 to 1,429. The number of injuries also decreased by 3.6%, from 956 to 922. However, this downward trend did not extend to crash severity, as the number of fatalities doubled from 4 to 8 year-over-year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

3

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2↑50.0%

5

Motorists Killed

Prior: 2↑150.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained broadly consistent year-over-year. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both May 2019 (271 crashes) and May 2018 (266 crashes), and the 5 p.m. hour was the peak hour in both periods. However, the afternoon rush hour peak from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. was less severe in May 2019, with 209 crashes compared to 243 in the same two-hour window in May 2018.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes decreased, the severity of crashes worsened in May 2019 compared to the prior year. The number of fatal crashes more than doubled from 4 to 9, increasing their share of total crashes from 0.3% to 0.6%. Conversely, the count of serious injury crashes decreased slightly from 48 to 44. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injury remained stable, accounting for 47.4% of crashes in May 2019 versus 47.6% in May 2018.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 9 fatal crash events resulted in 8 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal9fatal crashes0.6%
↑125.0%prior 4
Serious Injury44serious injury crashes3.1%
↓-8.3%prior 48
Minor Injury300minor injury crashes21%
↓-6.8%prior 322
Possible Injury295possible injury crashes20.6%
↑0.7%prior 293
Injury103minor injury crashes7.2%
↓-12.7%prior 118
No Injury678no injury crashes47.4%
↓-5.0%prior 714

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in May 2019 were less frequent in lower speed zones (35 mph or less), with 316 incidents compared to 367 in May 2018. While the total number of crashes in high-speed zones (60 mph or more) remained relatively stable (208 vs. 218), the number of fatal crashes in these zones increased from 1 to 3 year-over-year. Of the fatal crashes with a recorded speed limit, 60% occurred in zones of 60 mph or higher in May 2019, compared to 33% in the prior year.

Fatal crashes by zone: 40 mph: 1 of 83 (1.205%) · 45 mph: 1 of 173 (0.578%) · 65 mph: 2 of 84 (2.381%) · 70 mph: 1 of 49 (2.041%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31 · 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: 2019-05-01 through 2019-05-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2019-05-01 through 2019-05-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,429

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 2019." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2019-05-01 to 2019-05-31. 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-2019-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 — May 2019 | ThatCarHitMe.com