ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · BOSTON, MA · APRIL 2026
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
Authentication: None required. Public endpoint.
GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/massachusetts/boston/april-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
456 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
APRIL 2026
Total crashes in Boston for April 2026 were 456, a decrease from 477 crashes in April 2025. This represents a 4.4% reduction in overall crash incidents year-over-year. The most notable shift was an 800% increase in serious injury crashes, rising from 1 in April 2025 to 9 in April 2026.
456
▼ -4.4%was 477
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
188
▼ -34.0%was 285
Persons Injured
92
▲ 17.9%was 78
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 18 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, total crashes in Boston decreased by 4.4% from 477 in April 2025 to 456 in April 2026. While total fatalities remained stable at 1 for both periods, total injuries saw a significant decrease of 34.0%, falling from 285 to 188.
92
Hit-and-Run Crashes — April 2026
▲ 17.9% vs prior (78)
Hit-and-run crashes increased from 78 in April 2025 to 92 in April 2026. This represents a rise in the hit-and-run rate from 16.4% to 20.2% of all crashes. The data indicates an upward trend in both the count and proportion of hit-and-run incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
0
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
21
Pedestrians Injured
9
Cyclists Injured
154
Motorists Injured
4
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes shifted from Wednesday in April 2025 (80 crashes) to Friday in April 2026 (80 crashes). The peak hour for crashes remained 3 PM, with a slight increase from 35 crashes in April 2025 to 39 crashes in April 2026. This indicates a shift in the busiest day for crashes, while the peak hour remained consistent.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate slightly increased from 0.21% in April 2025 to 0.22% in April 2026. Serious injury crashes (severity A) saw a substantial increase, rising from 1 crash (0.2% of total) in April 2025 to 9 crashes (2.0% of total) in April 2026. Conversely, minor injury crashes decreased from 102 (21.4% of total) to 87 (19.1% of total) year-over-year.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
"No improper driving" decreased by 22 crashes, from 100 in April 2025 to 78 in April 2026. "Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road" increased by 8 crashes, from 18 to 26, while "Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner" also increased by 8 crashes, from 2 to 10. The top three contributing factors ("No improper driving," "Followed too closely," and "Failed to yield right of way") maintained their rankings despite decreases in count.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in "Clear" weather decreased from 235 in April 2025 to 191 in April 2026, while those in "Cloudy" conditions increased from 22 to 41. Crashes during "Daylight" hours increased from 256 to 266, whereas crashes in "Dark - lighted roadway" conditions decreased from 145 to 104. Crashes on "Dry" road surfaces decreased from 304 to 278, and on "Wet" surfaces from 80 to 66.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of persons involved in crashes decreased from 1116 in April 2025 to 1087 in April 2026. Notably, the 0-15 age group saw an increase in involved persons from 18 to 26, while the 16-20 age group decreased from 55 to 41. Among vehicle makes, TOYOTA remained the most frequently involved, though its count decreased from 176 to 149, with similar decreases observed for HONDA (148 to 140) and CHEVROLET (52 to 37).
Top Vehicle Makes (901 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Vehicle unit records
174 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (898 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The number of crashes occurring in 25 mph speed zones decreased from 180 in April 2025 to 129 in April 2026. Conversely, crashes in 55 mph speed zones slightly increased from 44 to 46. The single fatal crash in April 2026 occurred in a 30 mph zone, whereas the fatal crash in April 2025 occurred in a 25 mph zone.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 16 (6.25%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · 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: 2026-04-01 through 2026-04-30
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-04-01 through 2026-04-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 456
- Total persons involved: 1,087
- Total vehicles involved: 901
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). "BOSTON, MA Crash Intelligence Report: April 2026." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/april-2026-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
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly
Period: 2026-04-01 – 2026-04-30
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved