ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · AUSTIN, TX · MAY 2026
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-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
902 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MAY 2026
In May 2026, Austin recorded 902 total vehicle crashes, a 17.0% decrease from the 1,087 crashes documented in May 2025. This year-over-year decline was also reflected in key safety metrics, with total fatalities falling from 11 to 7 and total injuries decreasing from 827 to 589. The most notable shift was this comprehensive reduction in crash volume and severity across the city.
902
▼ -17.0%was 1,087
Total Crash Events
7
▼ -36.4%was 11
Persons Killed
589
▼ -28.8%was 827
Persons Injured
7
▼ -36.4%was 11
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (7) 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 · 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Traffic safety metrics in Austin showed a significant downward trend when comparing May 2026 to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes fell by 185 incidents, from 1,087 to 902. Correspondingly, the human cost decreased, with total fatalities dropping from 11 to 7 and the number of people injured falling from 827 to 589.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
5
Motorists Killed
0
Motorists Injured
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes shifted notably between the two periods. In May 2026, the peak day for crashes was Friday with 187 incidents, whereas in May 2025, the peak was Thursday with 190 crashes. A more pronounced change occurred in the peak hour, which moved from 9 PM (77 crashes) in the prior year to the 3 PM afternoon rush hour (64 crashes) in the current period.
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes saw a slight proportional improvement year-over-year. Fatal crashes accounted for 0.8% of all incidents in May 2026, down from 1.0% in May 2025. Similarly, crashes resulting in serious injuries decreased as a proportion of the total, from 2.3% to 1.8%. Conversely, the share of crashes involving no injuries increased from 44.7% to 45.7%, indicating a small shift toward less severe outcomes.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes decreased across all speed zones compared to the previous year, with the largest absolute drop occurring on roads with speed limits between 40 and 55 mph (325 crashes, down from 414). The location of fatal crashes also shifted; in May 2026, 3 of the 7 fatal crashes occurred in 35 mph zones. In contrast, during May 2025, roads with 40 mph and 45 mph limits accounted for a combined 6 of the 11 fatal crashes.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 19 (5.263%) · 35 mph: 3 of 153 (1.961%) · 55 mph: 1 of 76 (1.316%) · 65 mph: 2 of 136 (1.471%)
Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31 · 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: 2026-05-01 through 2026-05-31
- Report generated: July 5, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-05-01 through 2026-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Austin, TX
- Total crash records analyzed: 902
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 2026." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-31. 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-2026-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: 2026-05-01 – 2026-05-31
Generated: July 5, 2026 · All rights reserved