Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,050 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MAY 2024

All metrics benchmarked againstMay 2023

In May 2024, Austin recorded 1,050 total traffic crashes, a 4.9% decrease from the 1,104 crashes reported in May 2023. Total injuries increased slightly by 1.7% from 782 to 795, while the number of fatalities remained unchanged at 8. The most notable shift was in the composition of fatalities, with motorist deaths increasing from 2 to 5 while pedestrian deaths decreased from 3 to 2 year-over-year.

1,050

▼ -4.9%was 1,104

Total Crash Events

8

Persons Killed

795

▲ 1.7%was 782

Persons Injured

7

▼ -22.2%was 9

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (8) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (7) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic incidents in Austin showed a downward trend in May 2024 compared to the same month in the previous year. Total crashes decreased by 4.9%, from 1,104 to 1,050. Despite the drop in overall crashes, the number of total injuries saw a slight increase of 1.7% to 795, and the number of fatalities held steady at 8.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 3↓-33.3%

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 · 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31 · 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 May 2023 and May 2024. The peak day for crashes moved from Tuesday (173 crashes) in 2023 to Friday (222 crashes) in 2024, marking a substantial change in weekly patterns. The peak hour for collisions also shifted one hour later, from 3 p.m. in the prior year to 4 p.m. in the current year, although the number of crashes in that peak hour decreased from 82 to 73.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes showed a mixed profile year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes decreased from 9 to 7, representing a slight drop in their share of total crashes from 0.8% to 0.7%. Conversely, the number of serious injury crashes increased from 43 to 46, and their proportion of all crashes rose from 3.9% in May 2023 to 4.4% in May 2024. The percentage of crashes resulting in no injuries remained stable, moving from 44.0% to 44.6%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 7 fatal crash events resulted in 8 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.7%
↓-22.2%prior 9
Serious Injury46serious injury crashes4.4%
↑7.0%prior 43
Minor Injury241minor injury crashes23%
↓-5.1%prior 254
Possible Injury221possible injury crashes21%
↓-3.9%prior 230
Injury67minor injury crashes6.4%
↓-18.3%prior 82
No Injury468no injury crashes44.6%
↓-3.7%prior 486

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

A comparison of crashes by posted speed limit shows shifts in where collisions occurred. In May 2024, there was an increase in crashes in 35 mph zones (from 184 to 195) and 45 mph zones (from 171 to 184) compared to the prior year. Fatalities in the 45 mph zone increased from 2 to 3, while crashes in 55 mph zones saw a notable decrease from 133 to 90, with no fatalities in that zone compared to one in the prior year.

Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 90 (1.111%) · 35 mph: 1 of 195 (0.513%) · 40 mph: 1 of 76 (1.316%) · 45 mph: 3 of 184 (1.63%) · 65 mph: 1 of 159 (0.629%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31 · 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: 2024-05-01 through 2024-05-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2024-05-01 through 2024-05-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,050

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 2024." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-31. 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-2024-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 2024 | ThatCarHitMe.com