Traffic Crashes - Vision Zero Chicago Traffic Fatalities

Traffic fatalities within the City of Chicago that are included in Vision Zero Chicago (VZC) statistics. Vision Zero is Chicago’s commitment to eliminating fatalities and serious injuries from traffic crashes. The VZC Traffic Fatality List is compiled by the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) after monthly reviews of fatal traffic crash information provided by Chicago Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Unit (MAIU).

CDOT uses a standardized process – sometimes differing from other sources and everyday use of the term -- to determine whether a death is a “traffic fatality.” Therefore, the traffic fatalities included in this list may differ from the fatal crashes reported in the full Traffic Crashes dataset (https://data.cityofchicago.org/d/85ca-t3if).

Official traffic crash data are published by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) on an annual basis. This VZC Traffic Fatality List is updated monthly. Once IDOT publishes its crash data for a year, this dataset is edited to reflect IDOT’s findings. 

VZC Traffic Fatalities can be linked with other traffic crash datasets using the “Person_ID” field.

State of Illinois considers a “traffic fatality” as any death caused by a traffic crash involving a motor vehicle, within 30 days of the crash. Fatalities that meet this definition are included in this VZC Traffic Fatality List unless excluded by any criteria below. There may be records in this dataset that do not appear as fatalities in the other datasets.

The following criteria exclude a death from being considered a "traffic fatality," and are derived from Federal and State reporting standards. 

1. The Medical Examiner determined that the primary cause of the fatality was not the traffic crash, including:

a. The fatality was reported as a suicide based on a police investigation.

b. The fatality was reported as a homicide in which the "party at fault" intentionally inflicted serious bodily harm that caused the victim's death.

c. The fatality was caused directly and exclusively by a medical condition or the fatality was not attributable to road user movement on a public roadway. (Note: If a person driving suffers a medical emergency and consequently hits and kills another road user, the other road user is included, although the driver suffering a medical emergency is excluded.)

2. The crash did not occur within a trafficway.

3. The crash involved a train or other such mode of transport within the rail dedicated right-of-way.

4. The fatality was on a roadway not under Chicago Police Department jurisdiction, including:

a. The fatality was occurred on an expressway. The City of Chicago does not have oversight on the expressway system. However, a fatality on expressway ramps occurring within the City jurisdiction will be counted in VZC Traffic Fatality List.

b. The fatality occurred outside City limits. Crashes on streets along the City boundary may be assigned to another jurisdiction after the investigation if it is determined that the crash started or substantially occurred on the side of the street that is outside the City limits. Jurisdiction of streets along the City boundary are split between City and neighboring jurisdictions along the street centerline.

5. The fatality is not a person (e.g., an animal).

Change 12/7/2023: We have removed the RD_NO (Chicago Police Department report number) for privacy reasons.

Tags: public-safety, traffic-crashes, transportation, vision-zero
Organization: City of Chicago