Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,501 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
OCTOBER 2019

All metrics benchmarked againstOctober 2018

In October 2019, Austin recorded 1,501 traffic crashes, a slight decrease from the 1,509 crashes reported in October 2018. This represents a year-over-year reduction of approximately 0.5%. The most notable change was a one-third reduction in traffic fatalities, which fell from 9 in the prior period to 6 in the current period.

1,501

▼ -0.5%was 1,509

Total Crash Events

6

▼ -33.3%was 9

Persons Killed

923

▲ 1.5%was 909

Persons Injured

7

▼ -22.2%was 9

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (6) 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 · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash volume in Austin remained stable year-over-year, with a marginal 0.5% decrease from 1,509 incidents in October 2018 to 1,501 in October 2019. While the total number of crashes was nearly unchanged, the number of resulting fatalities saw a notable decline of 33.3%, dropping from 9 to 6. Conversely, the total number of injuries increased slightly by 1.5% over the same period, from 909 to 923.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 4↓-50.0%

4

Motorists Killed

Prior: 5↓-20.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed a shift between October 2018 and October 2019. The peak day for crashes moved from Monday (267 crashes) in the prior year to Thursday (282 crashes) in the current year. While the 5 PM hour remained the peak time for collisions in both periods, the number of crashes during this hour increased from 116 to 139. Weekday crash distribution also changed, with a notable decrease in Monday incidents and an increase in crashes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes decreased slightly year-over-year. The proportion of fatal crashes fell from 0.6% to 0.5% of all incidents, and serious injury crashes declined from 3.0% to 2.5%. Concurrently, there was a small upward shift toward less severe outcomes, with the share of possible injury crashes increasing from 19.0% to 20.1% of the total. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injury remained stable at approximately 50% for both periods.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 7 fatal crash events resulted in 6 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.5%
↓-22.2%prior 9
Serious Injury37serious injury crashes2.5%
↓-19.6%prior 46
Minor Injury308minor injury crashes20.5%
↑1.0%prior 305
Possible Injury301possible injury crashes20.1%
↑5.2%prior 286
Injury101minor injury crashes6.7%
↓-7.3%prior 109
No Injury747no injury crashes49.8%
↓-0.9%prior 754

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

The distribution of crashes by speed limit showed a shift between the two periods. In October 2018, the highest number of crashes occurred in 30–35 mph zones (316 incidents), whereas in October 2019, the 40–45 mph range saw the most crashes (283 incidents). Fatal crashes also occurred in different speed zones year-over-year. In the prior period, 6 of the 9 recorded fatal crashes happened in zones of 55 mph or higher. In contrast, the current period saw 4 of its 5 recorded fatal crashes occur in zones between 35 and 45 mph.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 168 (0.595%) · 40 mph: 1 of 89 (1.124%) · 45 mph: 2 of 194 (1.031%) · 75 mph: 1 of 8 (12.5%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31 · 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: 2019-10-01 through 2019-10-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2019-10-01 through 2019-10-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,501

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 2019." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2019-10-31. 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-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 — October 2019 | ThatCarHitMe.com