Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,174 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
OCTOBER 2023

All metrics benchmarked againstOctober 2022

In October 2023, Austin recorded 1,174 vehicle crashes, a 6.2% decrease from the 1,251 crashes reported in October 2022. The most significant year-over-year change was the reduction in traffic fatalities, which fell from 13 to 6. Total injuries also saw a notable decline, dropping from 898 to 744 over the same period.

1,174

▼ -6.2%was 1,251

Total Crash Events

6

▼ -53.8%was 13

Persons Killed

744

▼ -17.1%was 898

Persons Injured

7

▼ -41.7%was 12

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 · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Traffic safety metrics in Austin showed a downward trend in October 2023 compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes decreased by 6.2%, from 1,251 to 1,174. This improvement extended to crash outcomes, with total injuries falling by 17.1% and fatalities decreasing from 13 to 6.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

5

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 6↓-16.7%

1

Motorists Killed

Prior: 5↓-80.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 0→0.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · 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 2022 and October 2023. The most common day for crashes changed from Saturday, with 217 incidents in the prior period, to Tuesday, with 191 incidents in the current period. However, the peak time for collisions remained consistent, with the 5 p.m. hour seeing the highest frequency in both years, accounting for 99 crashes in 2022 and 104 in 2023.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The overall severity of crashes decreased in October 2023 compared to the prior year. The proportion of fatal crashes fell from 1.0% to 0.6% of all incidents, with the absolute count of fatal crashes dropping from 12 to 7. Similarly, the share of crashes resulting in any level of injury declined from a combined 47.5% in 2022 to 42.2% in 2023. Consequently, the percentage of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 45.8% to 50.4%.

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

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.6%
↓-41.7%prior 12
Serious Injury35serious injury crashes3%
↓-22.2%prior 45
Minor Injury227minor injury crashes19.3%
↓-10.3%prior 253
Possible Injury234possible injury crashes19.9%
↓-20.9%prior 296
Injury79minor injury crashes6.7%
↑9.7%prior 72
No Injury592no injury crashes50.4%
↑3.3%prior 573

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

When comparing crash locations by posted speed limits, there was an increase in incidents in both lower (35 mph and under) and higher (60 mph and over) speed zones between October 2022 and October 2023. Crashes in zones of 35 mph or less rose from 314 to 346, while those in zones of 60 mph or more increased from 272 to 325. In October 2023, all 6 fatal crashes with speed data occurred in zones of 40 mph or higher, a contrast to October 2022, when 2 of the 11 fatal crashes with speed data occurred in zones of 35 mph or less.

Fatal crashes by zone: 40 mph: 2 of 78 (2.564%) · 45 mph: 1 of 149 (0.671%) · 55 mph: 1 of 121 (0.826%) · 65 mph: 1 of 167 (0.599%) · 80 mph: 1 of 2 (50%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31 · 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: 2023-10-01 through 2023-10-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2023-10-01 through 2023-10-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,174

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 2023." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-31. 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-2023-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 2023 | ThatCarHitMe.com