Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

5 CRASHES IN
BERNARDSTON, MA
MAY 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstMay 2024

In May 2025, BERNARDSTON experienced 5 total crashes, a 150% increase compared to the 2 crashes reported in May 2024. Fatalities remained at 0 in both periods, while total injuries decreased by 50%, from 4 in the prior period to 2 in the current period. The most notable year-over-year shift is the significant increase in total crashes.

5

150.0%was 2

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

2

-50.0%was 4

Persons Injured

0

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (0) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (0) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend indicates a substantial increase in crash incidents, with total crashes rising from 2 in May 2024 to 5 in May 2025, representing a 150% increase. Despite this rise in crashes, total fatalities remained stable at 0 in both periods. Concurrently, the number of injured persons decreased by 50%, from 4 in the prior period to 2 in the current period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

2

Motorists Injured

Prior: 4-50.0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal distribution of crashes shifted significantly between the two periods. In May 2025, the peak day for crashes was Saturday with 2 incidents, and the peak hour was 7 PM with 2 incidents. This contrasts with May 2024, where crashes peaked on Sunday and Tuesday with 1 incident each, and peak hours were 7 AM and 11 AM with 1 incident each.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes remained consistently at 0 in both May 2024 and May 2025. The total number of injuries decreased from 4 in the prior period to 2 in the current period, a 50% reduction. In May 2025, 40% of crashes resulted in minor injuries and 60% in no injuries, compared to May 2024 where 50% of crashes involved minor injuries and 50% involved no injuries.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Minor Injury2minor injury crashes40%
100.0%prior 1
No Injury3no injury crashes60%
200.0%prior 1

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Crashes attributed to 'No improper driving' increased from 1 in May 2024 to 3 in May 2025, marking a 200% increase in count. 'Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road' emerged as a contributing factor in May 2025 with 2 crashes, having not been present in the prior period. Conversely, 'Inattention' was a factor in 1 crash in May 2024 but did not appear in May 2025.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving3 (60%)
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road2 (40%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Regarding weather conditions, May 2025 saw 3 crashes in clear weather and 2 in rainy conditions, while May 2024 reported 1 crash in clear/cloudy and 1 in cloudy conditions. Crashes occurring on wet road surfaces increased from 1 in May 2024 to 2 in May 2025. Lighting condition data for the prior period is not available for comparison.

Weather

Clear3 (60.0%)
Rain1 (20.0%)
Rain/Rain1 (20.0%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2 (40.0%)
Dusk2 (40.0%)
Other1 (20.0%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry3 (60.0%)
Wet2 (40.0%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

Top Vehicle Makes (5 vehicles)

1
HONDA2 (40%)
2
BUIC1 (20%)
3
NISSAN1 (20%)
4
RAM1 (20%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Vehicle unit records

Sex Distribution (5 persons with recorded sex)

Female4 (80.0%)
0.0%prior 4
Male1 (20.0%)
-50.0%prior 2

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

All crashes in both May 2024 and May 2025 occurred without any fatalities across all reported speed zones. Crashes in the 45 MPH and 65 MPH speed zones remained stable with 1 crash each in both periods. Additionally, May 2025 introduced crashes in the 30 MPH (1 crash) and 55 MPH (2 crashes) zones, which were not observed in May 2024.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Posted speed limit at crash location

Data Sources & Methodology

Primary Data Source

All crash data in this report is sourced from Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), accessed programmatically via the Arcgis_yearly 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: Arcgis_yearly Open Data API (SoQL queries)
  • Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
  • Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
  • Date filter applied: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: BERNARDSTON, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 5
  • Total persons involved: 5
  • Total vehicles involved: 5

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). "BERNARDSTON, MA Crash Intelligence Report: May 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/bernardston/may-2025-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

ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company

Bernardston, MA Crash Report — May 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com