Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

821 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MAY 2020

All metrics benchmarked againstMay 2019

In May 2020, Austin recorded 821 total crashes, a 42.5% decrease from the 1,429 crashes reported in May 2019. This year-over-year decline was also reflected in total fatalities, which fell from 8 to 5, and total injuries, which dropped from 922 to 551. The most notable shift was the substantial reduction in overall crash volume across all categories.

821

▼ -42.5%was 1,429

Total Crash Events

5

▼ -37.5%was 8

Persons Killed

551

▼ -40.2%was 922

Persons Injured

5

▼ -44.4%was 9

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (5) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (5) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash trends in Austin showed a significant year-over-year decrease in May 2020. Total crashes fell by 42.5%, from 1,429 in May 2019 to 821 in May 2020. This downward trend extended to key safety metrics, with total fatalities declining from 8 to 5 and total injuries decreasing from 922 to 551.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

3

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 3→0.0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 5↓-60.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between the two periods. In May 2020, the peak day for crashes was Saturday with 150 incidents, a change from May 2019 when Friday was the peak day with 271 crashes. While the peak hour for collisions remained the 5 p.m. hour in both periods, the volume of crashes during that hour decreased from 106 to 69.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the total number of fatal crashes decreased from 9 to 5 year-over-year, the fatal crash rate as a percentage of all crashes remained relatively stable, moving from 0.63% in May 2019 to 0.61% in May 2020. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries increased from 3.1% to 4.8% of all incidents, even as the absolute number of such crashes fell from 44 to 39. The share of crashes with no reported injuries decreased slightly from 47.4% to 46.8%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal5fatal crashes0.6%
↓-44.4%prior 9
Serious Injury39serious injury crashes4.8%
↓-11.4%prior 44
Minor Injury173minor injury crashes21.1%
↓-42.3%prior 300
Possible Injury165possible injury crashes20.1%
↓-44.1%prior 295
Injury55minor injury crashes6.7%
↓-46.6%prior 103
No Injury384no injury crashes46.8%
↓-43.4%prior 678

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in May 2020 continued to be most frequent in zones with speed limits of 35 mph and 45 mph, consistent with the prior year, though the total volume in these zones decreased significantly. In May 2019, there were 193 crashes in 35 mph zones, which dropped to 108 in May 2020. Fatal crashes in both periods were concentrated in higher speed zones; in May 2020, all four fatal crashes with a recorded speed limit occurred in zones posted at 45 mph or 70 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 45 mph: 2 of 121 (1.653%) · 70 mph: 2 of 44 (4.545%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · 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: 2020-05-01 through 2020-05-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-05-01 through 2020-05-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 821

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 2020." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31. 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-2020-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

Austin, TX Crash Report — May 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com