Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,461 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
OCTOBER 2017

All metrics benchmarked againstOctober 2016

In October 2017, Austin recorded 1,461 total traffic crashes, a 4.9% decrease from the 1,536 crashes reported in October 2016. While the total number of fatalities remained unchanged at seven for both periods, there was a significant shift in the type of road user killed. In October 2017, six of the seven fatalities were pedestrians, whereas in the prior year, all seven fatalities were motorists.

1,461

▼ -4.9%was 1,536

Total Crash Events

7

Persons Killed

924

▼ -7.0%was 994

Persons Injured

7

▼ -12.5%was 8

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 · 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, key crash metrics in Austin showed a downward trend in October 2017 compared to the same month in the previous year. Total crashes decreased by 4.9% from 1,536 to 1,461, and total injuries fell by 7.0% from 994 to 924. The number of total fatalities remained stable at seven for both periods.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

6

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31 · 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 October 2016 and October 2017. The peak day for crashes moved from Monday (257 crashes) in the prior year to Tuesday (270 crashes) in the current period. The peak hour for collisions shifted slightly earlier, from the 5 p.m. hour (126 crashes) in 2016 to the 4 p.m. hour (122 crashes) in 2017.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The crash severity distribution saw some changes year-over-year. The rate of fatal crashes decreased slightly from 0.52% of all crashes in October 2016 to 0.48% in October 2017. While the overall proportion of injury-related crashes remained stable, the share of serious injury crashes increased from 2.1% to 3.2% of total incidents. Conversely, crashes resulting in 'possible injury' decreased as a percentage of the total, from 22.5% to 19.4%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.5%
↓-12.5%prior 8
Serious Injury47serious injury crashes3.2%
↑42.4%prior 33
Minor Injury315minor injury crashes21.6%
↑2.6%prior 307
Possible Injury284possible injury crashes19.4%
↓-17.7%prior 345
Injury95minor injury crashes6.5%
↓-19.5%prior 118
No Injury713no injury crashes48.8%
↓-1.7%prior 725

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Comparing crashes by posted speed limit, there was a decrease in incidents across most speed zones in October 2017 versus the prior year, particularly in the 30-35 mph range (328 vs. 366 crashes) and 50-60 mph range (278 vs. 316 crashes). The number of crashes in zones 65 mph or higher remained stable, with 134 incidents compared to 133. There was a notable shift in where fatal crashes occurred; in October 2017, five of the six fatalities with a recorded speed limit happened in zones of 35 mph or less, whereas in the prior year, fatalities were more evenly distributed between lower and higher speed zones.

Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 3 of 99 (3.03%) · 35 mph: 2 of 229 (0.873%) · 45 mph: 1 of 189 (0.529%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31 · 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: 2017-10-01 through 2017-10-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2017-10-01 through 2017-10-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,461

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: October 2017." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2017-10-01 to 2017-10-31. 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/october-2017-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 — October 2017 | ThatCarHitMe.com