ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · BOSTON, MA · DECEMBER 2022
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/december-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
534 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
DECEMBER 2022
In December 2022, Boston recorded 534 crashes, marking a 46.7% increase from the 364 crashes reported in December 2021. Despite the rise in overall crash incidents, total fatalities significantly decreased by 75%, from 4 fatalities in December 2021 to 1 fatality in December 2022.
534
▲ 46.7%was 364
Total Crash Events
1
▼ -75.0%was 4
Persons Killed
157
▲ 42.7%was 110
Persons Injured
68
▲ 83.8%was 37
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. 54 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash incidents in Boston increased year-over-year, with a 46.7% rise from 364 crashes in December 2021 to 534 crashes in December 2022. Concurrently, total injuries also saw an increase of 42.7%, from 110 to 157.
68
Hit-and-Run Crashes — December 2022
▲ 83.8% vs prior (37)
Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, rising by 83.8% from 37 incidents in December 2021 to 68 incidents in December 2022. This led to an increase in the hit-and-run rate, from 10.2% in the prior period to 12.7% in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
0
Motorists Killed
22
Pedestrians Injured
6
Cyclists Injured
129
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
Temporal patterns of crashes shifted year-over-year; the peak day for crashes moved from Thursday with 70 incidents in December 2021 to Saturday with 104 incidents in December 2022. Similarly, the peak hour for crashes changed from 4 PM with 29 incidents in the prior period to 7 PM with 39 incidents in the current period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes decreased significantly by 75%, from 4 incidents in December 2021 to 1 in December 2022, resulting in a lower fatal crash rate of 0.19% compared to 1.1%. While minor injury crashes increased by 50% from 52 to 78, serious injury crashes saw a substantial increase from 1 to 6 incidents, representing a 500% rise.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The most frequent contributing factor shifted from 'Followed too closely' (78 incidents in December 2021) to 'No improper driving' (115 incidents in December 2022), marking a 76.9% increase for the latter. Crashes attributed to 'Followed too closely' decreased by 21.8% from 78 to 61 incidents. Notably, 'Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road' incidents surged by 230%, from 10 to 33 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased from 231 to 307, but represented a smaller proportion of total crashes (57.5% vs 63.5%). Conversely, crashes during rainy conditions more than doubled from 44 to 97, increasing their share from 12.1% to 18.2%. Incidents on snowy or icy road surfaces also saw a notable increase, rising from 4 in December 2021 to 18 in December 2022.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 48.4%, from 705 in December 2021 to 1046 in December 2022. Toyota remained the most frequently involved make, with its count increasing by 65.8% from 117 to 194. In terms of persons involved, the 0-15 age group saw a 64.3% increase, rising from 14 to 23 individuals.
Top Vehicle Makes (1,046 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
183 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (1,083 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 25 mph zones increased by 130.1% from 83 to 191, with the fatal rate in this zone dropping from 2.41% to 0%. Conversely, crashes in 55 mph zones decreased slightly by 6.2% from 65 to 61, but a fatal crash occurred in this zone in December 2022, resulting in a 1.639% fatal rate compared to 0% in the prior year.
Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 61 (1.639%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · 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: 2022-12-01 through 2022-12-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-12-01 through 2022-12-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 534
- Total persons involved: 1,292
- Total vehicles involved: 1,046
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: December 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/december-2022-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: 2022-12-01 – 2022-12-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved