Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,351 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
SEPTEMBER 2019

All metrics benchmarked againstSeptember 2018

In September 2019, Austin recorded 1,351 total crashes, a slight decrease of 0.8% from the 1,362 crashes reported in September 2018. Despite the stable number of total incidents, the most significant year-over-year change was a sharp increase in roadway fatalities, which more than doubled from 5 to 11.

1,351

-0.8%was 1,362

Total Crash Events

11

120.0%was 5

Persons Killed

829

-2.2%was 848

Persons Injured

12

100.0%was 6

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (11) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (12) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash volume in Austin remained relatively stable, with total crashes decreasing by less than 1% from September 2018 to September 2019. However, the severity of crashes worsened considerably. The number of people killed in crashes increased by 120%, rising from 5 to 11, even as the number of total injuries fell slightly from 848 to 829.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

5

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 425.0%

3

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1200.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30 · 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 some shifts between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Thursday (217 crashes) in September 2018 to Monday (223 crashes) in September 2019. The peak hour for collisions, however, remained consistent, occurring at 4 p.m. in both years, with 100 crashes in 2018 and 103 in 2019.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes increased from the prior year. The number of fatal crashes doubled from 6 to 12, raising the fatal crash rate from 0.4% to 0.9% of all incidents. The proportion of serious injury crashes also grew, from 2.4% (33 crashes) in the prior period to 3.4% (46 crashes) in the current period. Correspondingly, the share of crashes resulting in minor injuries decreased from 21.5% to 19.5%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 12 fatal crash events resulted in 11 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal12fatal crashes0.9%
100.0%prior 6
Serious Injury46serious injury crashes3.4%
39.4%prior 33
Minor Injury264minor injury crashes19.5%
-9.9%prior 293
Possible Injury276possible injury crashes20.4%
2.2%prior 270
Injury81minor injury crashes6%
-14.7%prior 95
No Injury672no injury crashes49.7%
1.1%prior 665

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in September 2019 showed a shift towards higher speed zones compared to the previous year. Collisions in the 70 mph zone increased from 37 to 59, and those in the 60 mph zone rose from 50 to 59. This shift coincided with a notable increase in fatal crashes at higher speeds; the 60 mph and 70 mph zones accounted for a combined 7 fatal crashes in 2019, whereas they had zero in the same month of 2018.

Fatal crashes by zone: 35 mph: 1 of 182 (0.549%) · 45 mph: 1 of 180 (0.556%) · 60 mph: 4 of 59 (6.78%) · 70 mph: 3 of 59 (5.085%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30 · 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: 2019-09-01 through 2019-09-30
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2019-09-01 through 2019-09-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,351

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: September 2019." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2019-09-30. 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/september-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 — September 2019 | ThatCarHitMe.com