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Traffic Crashes - Crashes

Attribution: City of Chicago · source

Crash data shows information about each traffic crash on city streets within the City of Chicago limits and under the jurisdiction of Chicago Police Department (CPD). Data are shown as is from the electronic crash reporting system (E-Crash) at CPD, excluding any personally identifiable information. Records are added to the data portal when a crash report is finalized or when amendments are made to an existing report in E-Crash. Data from E-Crash are available for some police districts in 2015, but citywide data are not available until September 2017. About half of all crash reports, mostly minor crashes, are self-reported at the police district by the driver(s) involved and the other half are recorded at the scene by the police officer responding to the crash. Many of the crash parameters, including street condition data, weather condition, and posted speed limits, are recorded by the reporting officer based on best available information at the time, but many of these may disagree with posted information or other assessments on road conditions. If any new or updated information on a crash is received, the reporting officer may amend the crash report at a later time. A traffic crash within the city limits for which CPD is not the responding police agency, typically crashes on interstate highways, freeway ramps, and on local roads along the City boundary, are excluded from this dataset. All crashes are recorded as per the format specified in the Traffic Crash Report, SR1050, of the Illinois Department of Transportation. The crash data published on the Chicago data portal mostly follows the data elements in SR1050 form. The current version of the SR1050 instructions manual with detailed information on each data elements is available <a href="https://idot.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/idot/documents/transportation-system/manuals-guides-and-handbooks/safety/illinois-traffic-crash-report-sr-1050-instruction-manual-2019.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. As per Illinois statute, only crashes with a property damage value of $1,500 or more or involving bodily injury to any person(s) and that happen on a public roadway and that involve at least one moving vehicle, except bike dooring, are considered reportable crashes. However, CPD records every reported traffic crash event, regardless of the statute of limitations, and hence any formal Chicago crash dataset released by Illinois Department of Transportation may not include all the crashes listed here. Change 11/21/2023: We have removed the RD_NO (Chicago Police Department report number) for privacy reasons.

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Dataset Profile

1.1M
Total records
49
Columns
table
Type
ID: 85ca-t3if

Popularity

822.2K
Views
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~1.1M rows · 49 columns

Freshness & Tracking

Rows updated4 months ago · 5/13/2026
View modified5 months ago
Created on source10/19/2017
Published7/27/2023
Discovered3/11/2026, 8:37:23 AM
Last checked5/13/2026, 11:34:46 PM
Last changed3/11/2026, 8:37:23 AM
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Owner & Attribution

OwnerJonathan Levy
AuthorJonathan Levy
PublisherCity of Chicago

Metadata

FrequencyDaily
Data OwnerChicago Police Department
Time Period2015 to present (All police districts September 2017 - present)
Changes and Other Historical Information Useful to Understanding This Datasethttps://www.google.com/search?q=site:data.cityofchicago.org/stories+"Related+dataset+ID+s"+"85ca-t3if"

Schema (49 columns)

Column metadata from the source provider's own profiling

ColumnTypeCardinalityNullsTop ValuesRange
CRASH_RECORD_ID
This number can be used to link to the same crash in the Vehicles and People datasets. This number also serves as a unique ID in this dataset.
text
CRASH_DATE_EST_I
Crash date estimated by desk officer or reporting party (only used in cases where crash is reported at police station days after the crash)
text
CRASH_DATE
Date and time of crash as entered by the reporting officer
calendar_date
POSTED_SPEED_LIMIT
Posted speed limit, as determined by reporting officer
number
TRAFFIC_CONTROL_DEVICE
Traffic control device present at crash location, as determined by reporting officer
text
DEVICE_CONDITION
Condition of traffic control device, as determined by reporting officer
text
WEATHER_CONDITION
Weather condition at time of crash, as determined by reporting officer
text
LIGHTING_CONDITION
Light condition at time of crash, as determined by reporting officer
text
FIRST_CRASH_TYPE
Type of first collision in crash
text
TRAFFICWAY_TYPE
Trafficway type, as determined by reporting officer
text
LANE_CNT
Total number of through lanes in either direction, excluding turn lanes, as determined by reporting officer (0 = intersection)
number
ALIGNMENT
Street alignment at crash location, as determined by reporting officer
text
ROADWAY_SURFACE_COND
Road surface condition, as determined by reporting officer
text
ROAD_DEFECT
Road defects, as determined by reporting officer
text
REPORT_TYPE
Administrative report type (at scene, at desk, amended)
text
CRASH_TYPE
A general severity classification for the crash. Can be either Injury and/or Tow Due to Crash or No Injury / Drive Away
text
INTERSECTION_RELATED_I
A field observation by the police officer whether an intersection played a role in the crash. Does not represent whether or not the crash occurred within the intersection.
text
NOT_RIGHT_OF_WAY_I
Whether the crash begun or first contact was made outside of the public right-of-way.
text
HIT_AND_RUN_I
Crash did/did not involve a driver who caused the crash and fled the scene without exchanging information and/or rendering aid
text
DAMAGE
A field observation of estimated damage.
text
DATE_POLICE_NOTIFIED
Calendar date on which police were notified of the crash
calendar_date
PRIM_CONTRIBUTORY_CAUSE
The factor which was most significant in causing the crash, as determined by officer judgment
text
SEC_CONTRIBUTORY_CAUSE
The factor which was second most significant in causing the crash, as determined by officer judgment
text
STREET_NO
Street address number of crash location, as determined by reporting officer
number
STREET_DIRECTION
Street address direction (N,E,S,W) of crash location, as determined by reporting officer
text
STREET_NAME
Street address name of crash location, as determined by reporting officer
text
BEAT_OF_OCCURRENCE
Chicago Police Department Beat ID. Boundaries available at https://data.cityofchicago.org/d/aerh-rz74
number
PHOTOS_TAKEN_I
Whether the Chicago Police Department took photos at the location of the crash
text
STATEMENTS_TAKEN_I
Whether statements were taken from unit(s) involved in crash
text
DOORING_I
Whether crash involved a motor vehicle occupant opening a door into the travel path of a bicyclist, causing a crash
text
WORK_ZONE_I
Whether the crash occurred in an active work zone
text
WORK_ZONE_TYPE
The type of work zone, if any
text
WORKERS_PRESENT_I
Whether construction workers were present in an active work zone at crash location
text
NUM_UNITS
Number of units involved in the crash. A unit can be a motor vehicle, a pedestrian, a bicyclist, or another non-passenger roadway user. Each unit represents a mode of traffic with an independent trajectory.
number
MOST_SEVERE_INJURY
Most severe injury sustained by any person involved in the crash
text
INJURIES_TOTAL
Total persons sustaining fatal, incapacitating, non-incapacitating, and possible injuries as determined by the reporting officer
number
INJURIES_FATAL
Total persons sustaining fatal injuries in the crash
number
INJURIES_INCAPACITATING
Total persons sustaining incapacitating/serious injuries in the crash as determined by the reporting officer. Any injury other than fatal injury, which prevents the injured person from walking, driving, or normally continuing the activities they were capable of performing before the injury occurred. Includes severe lacerations, broken limbs, skull or chest injuries, and abdominal injuries.
number
INJURIES_NON_INCAPACITATING
Total persons sustaining non-incapacitating injuries in the crash as determined by the reporting officer. Any injury, other than fatal or incapacitating injury, which is evident to observers at the scene of the crash. Includes lump on head, abrasions, bruises, and minor lacerations.
number
INJURIES_REPORTED_NOT_EVIDENT
Total persons sustaining possible injuries in the crash as determined by the reporting officer. Includes momentary unconsciousness, claims of injuries not evident, limping, complaint of pain, nausea, and hysteria.
number
INJURIES_NO_INDICATION
Total persons sustaining no injuries in the crash as determined by the reporting officer
number
INJURIES_UNKNOWN
Total persons for whom injuries sustained, if any, are unknown
number
CRASH_HOUR
The hour of the day component of CRASH_DATE.
number
CRASH_DAY_OF_WEEK
The day of the week component of CRASH_DATE. Sunday=1
number
CRASH_MONTH
The month component of CRASH_DATE.
number
LATITUDE
The latitude of the crash location, as determined by reporting officer, as derived from the reported address of crash
number
LONGITUDE
The longitude of the crash location, as determined by reporting officer, as derived from the reported address of crash
number
LOCATION
The crash location, as determined by reporting officer, as derived from the reported address of crash, in a column type that allows for mapping and other geographic analysis in the data portal software
point
Boundaries - ZIP Codes
This column was automatically created in order to record in what polygon from the dataset 'Boundaries - ZIP Codes' (rpca-8um6) the point in column 'location' is located. This enables the creation of region maps (choropleths) in the visualization canvas and data lens.
number

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