ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · BOSTON, MA · JANUARY 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/january-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
479 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
JANUARY 2022
Total crashes in January 2022 were 479, a substantial increase from 247 crashes in January 2021. This represents a 93.9% rise year-over-year. The most notable shift was the significant increase in overall crash volume and associated injuries, with total injuries rising from 66 to 121.
479
▲ 93.9%was 247
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
121
▲ 83.3%was 66
Persons Injured
57
▲ 147.8%was 23
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. 75 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash activity in January 2022 significantly increased compared to January 2021, with total crashes rising by 93.9% from 247 to 479. Total injuries also saw a substantial increase of 83.3%, from 66 to 121. Fatalities remained stable at one in both periods.
57
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2022
▲ 147.8% vs prior (23)
Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, rising from 23 incidents in January 2021 to 57 incidents in January 2022, a 147.8% increase. Concurrently, the hit-and-run rate also increased from 9.3% to 11.9% of all crashes. This indicates an upward trend in hit-and-run incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
4
Pedestrians Injured
3
Cyclists Injured
109
Motorists Injured
5
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · 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 Saturday in both periods, with 79 crashes in January 2022 compared to 50 in January 2021. However, the peak hour for crashes shifted from 3 p.m. in January 2021 (21 crashes) to 1 p.m. in January 2022 (33 crashes). This indicates a shift in the timing of peak crash occurrences.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The total number of fatal crashes remained stable at one in both periods, but the fatal crash rate decreased from 0.4% to 0.2% due to the overall increase in crash volume. The proportion of crashes resulting in any injury (A, B, or C severity) slightly decreased from 26.7% in January 2021 to 25.3% in January 2022. While the count of serious injuries increased from 3 to 4, their proportion relative to total crashes decreased from 1.2% to 0.8%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
No improper driving remained the leading contributing factor, with its count increasing from 47 to 90, a 91.5% rise. Followed too closely also maintained its second-place ranking, with its count increasing from 45 to 53, a 17.8% increase. Notably, Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings saw a substantial count increase from 7 to 20, an 185.7% change, moving from 11th to 4th in ranking.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring on adverse road surfaces significantly increased year-over-year; for example, crashes on wet roads rose from 35 to 77 (a 120% increase), and on snowy roads from 12 to 43 (a 258.3% increase). Crashes on icy roads saw an 800% increase, from 2 to 18. While the proportion of crashes in clear weather increased, the counts for adverse weather and road conditions generally rose.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes nearly doubled, increasing from 477 in January 2021 to 910 in January 2022. The top three vehicle makes involved remained Toyota, Honda, and Ford, with all showing significant increases in counts. The 26-34 age group saw the largest numerical increase in persons involved, rising from 130 to 247.
Top Vehicle Makes (910 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
279 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (849 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 25 mph speed zone increased substantially from 40 to 163, a 307.5% rise. The single fatal crash in January 2022 occurred in a 55 mph zone, which had no fatalities in the prior period, while the fatal crash in January 2021 occurred in a 25 mph zone. Overall, crashes increased across most speed limit categories.
Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 67 (1.493%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31 · 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: 2022-01-01 through 2022-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-01-01 through 2022-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 479
- Total persons involved: 1,142
- Total vehicles involved: 910
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: January 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/january-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: 2022-01-01 – 2022-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved