Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

544 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
FEBRUARY 2026

All metrics benchmarked againstFebruary 2025

In February 2026, Boston experienced 544 total crashes, an increase from 398 crashes in February 2025. This represents a 36.68% rise in total crashes year-over-year. The most notable year-over-year shift was the 60% increase in hit-and-run crashes, rising from 60 to 96 incidents.

544

36.7%was 398

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

180

7.8%was 167

Persons Injured

96

60.0%was 60

Hit-and-Run Crashes

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. 28 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend indicates a significant increase in crash activity year-over-year, with total crashes rising from 398 in February 2025 to 544 in February 2026. This constitutes a 36.68% increase in the total number of crashes. Total injuries also saw an upward trend, increasing by 7.78% from 167 to 180.

96

Hit-and-Run Crashes — February 2026

60.0% vs prior (60)

Hit-and-run crashes increased from 60 in February 2025 to 96 in February 2026, representing a 60% increase in count. The hit-and-run crash rate also rose from 15.1% of all crashes in the prior period to 17.6% in the current period. This indicates an upward trend in both the number and proportion of hit-and-run incidents.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

10

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 5100.0%

170

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1606.3%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes remained Sunday in both periods, with counts increasing from 71 in February 2025 to 88 in February 2026. The peak hour for crashes shifted from 7 PM, which had 25 crashes in February 2025, to 3 PM, which recorded 48 crashes in February 2026. This indicates a shift in the most frequent crash time from the evening to the afternoon.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatalities remained at 0 in both February 2025 and February 2026, resulting in a consistent fatal crash rate of 0%. Serious injury crashes (code 'A') decreased from 7 (1.8% of total crashes) in the prior period to 6 (1.1% of total crashes) in the current period. The proportion of minor injury crashes (code 'B') decreased from 16.6% to 12.5%, while possible injury crashes (code 'C') increased from 8.8% to 11.2% of total crashes.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury6serious injury crashes1.1%
-14.3%prior 7
Minor Injury68minor injury crashes12.5%
3.0%prior 66
Possible Injury61possible injury crashes11.2%
74.3%prior 35
No Injury381no injury crashes70%
44.3%prior 264

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Among contributing factors, 'No improper driving' increased from 76 crashes in February 2025 to 82 crashes in February 2026. 'Followed too closely' crashes rose from 37 to 59, a 59.46% increase in count. 'Failed to yield right of way' saw a substantial increase from 20 crashes to 50 crashes, marking a 150% increase in count, while 'Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings' decreased from 28 crashes to 13 crashes.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving82 (15.1%)7.9%prior 76
Followed too closely59 (10.8%)59.5%prior 37
Failed to yield right of way50 (9.2%)150.0%prior 20
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road39 (7.2%)116.7%prior 18
Inattention22 (4%)144.4%prior 9
Driving too fast for conditions17 (3.1%)21.4%prior 14
Made an improper turn13 (2.4%)44.4%prior 9
Other improper action13 (2.4%)62.5%prior 8
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings13 (2.4%)-53.6%prior 28
Exceeded authorized speed limit9 (1.7%)-30.8%prior 13

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions increased from 160 to 214, and those in 'Clear/Clear' conditions rose from 90 to 119. Crashes on 'Dry' road surfaces increased from 224 to 264, while crashes on 'Snow' surfaces increased from 37 to 53. The proportion of crashes occurring in 'Daylight' conditions increased from 145 to 257, becoming the most frequent lighting condition, while 'Dark - lighted roadway' remained constant at 180 crashes.

Weather

Clear214 (46.9%)
33.8%prior 160
Clear/Clear119 (26.1%)
32.2%prior 90
Snow43 (9.4%)
38.7%prior 31
Cloudy22 (4.8%)
22.2%prior 18
Snow/Snow13 (2.9%)
30.0%prior 10
Cloudy/Cloudy10 (2.2%)
42.9%prior 7
Other5 (1.1%)
Clear/Snow4 (0.9%)
Cloudy/Snow3 (0.7%)
Clear/Cloudy3 (0.7%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight257 (55.2%)
77.2%prior 145
Dark - lighted roadway180 (38.6%)
0.0%prior 180
Dawn11 (2.4%)
-52.2%prior 23
Dusk8 (1.7%)
-20.0%prior 10
Dark - roadway not lighted5 (1.1%)
0.0%prior 5
Other4 (0.9%)
Dark - unknown roadway lighting1 (0.2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry264 (68.2%)
17.9%prior 224
Snow53 (13.7%)
43.2%prior 37
Wet51 (13.2%)
4.1%prior 49
Slush7 (1.8%)
16.7%prior 6
Ice7 (1.8%)
0.0%prior 7
Other2 (0.5%)
-60.0%prior 5
Water (standing, moving)2 (0.5%)
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel1 (0.3%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 795 in February 2025 to 1078 in February 2026. The top age groups involved in crashes, 26-34 and 35-44, both saw increases in count, from 202 to 242 and 177 to 232 respectively. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved, increasing from 156 to 193, with Honda also maintaining its second position, rising from 125 to 162.

Top Vehicle Makes (1,078 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA193 (17.9%)
23.7%prior 156
2
HONDA162 (15%)
29.6%prior 125
3
FORD119 (11%)
85.9%prior 64
4
CHEVROLET54 (5%)
50.0%prior 36
5
NISSAN54 (5%)
28.6%prior 42
6
JEEP42 (3.9%)
31.3%prior 32
7
HYUNDAI34 (3.2%)
21.4%prior 28
8
SUBARU34 (3.2%)
36.0%prior 25
9
MAZDA28 (2.6%)
115.4%prior 13
10
KIA27 (2.5%)
58.8%prior 17

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Vehicle unit records

189 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (1,037 persons with recorded sex)

Male667 (64.3%)
39.8%prior 477
Female370 (35.7%)
26.3%prior 293

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in 25 mph zones increased from 119 in February 2025 to 152 in February 2026. Crashes in 55 mph zones increased from 33 to 45, and those in 35 mph zones rose from 33 to 42. No fatalities were recorded in any speed zone for either period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28 · 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: 2026-02-01 through 2026-02-28
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2026-02-01 through 2026-02-28 (28 days)
  • Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 544
  • Total persons involved: 1,227
  • Total vehicles involved: 1,078

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: February 2026." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-02-01 to 2026-02-28. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/february-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

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Boston, MA Crash Report — February 2026 | ThatCarHitMe.com