ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · BOSTON, MA · JANUARY 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/january-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
604 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
JANUARY 2026
In January 2026, Boston experienced 604 total crashes, a 30.74% increase from the 462 crashes recorded in January 2025. Total injuries also rose by 30.46% from 174 to 227, while total fatalities decreased by 66.67%, from 3 in January 2025 to 1 in January 2026.
604
▲ 30.7%was 462
Total Crash Events
1
▼ -66.7%was 3
Persons Killed
227
▲ 30.5%was 174
Persons Injured
114
▲ 83.9%was 62
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. 31 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Boston show an upward trend, with total crashes increasing by 30.74% year-over-year, from 462 in January 2025 to 604 in January 2026. Despite this rise in total crashes, the number of fatalities decreased by 66.67%, from 3 to 1.
114
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2026
▲ 83.9% vs prior (62)
Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, with the count rising from 62 in January 2025 to 114 in January 2026, an 83.87% increase. The hit-and-run rate also rose from 13.4% of all crashes in January 2025 to 18.9% in January 2026, indicating an upward trend in these incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
0
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
19
Pedestrians Injured
11
Cyclists Injured
194
Motorists Injured
3
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · 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 Friday in both January 2025 and January 2026, with 95 and 122 crashes respectively. However, the peak hour shifted from 7 p.m. with 32 crashes in January 2025 to 3 p.m. with 46 crashes in January 2026. Notably, Thursday saw a significant increase in crashes, rising from 49 in January 2025 to 104 in January 2026.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate decreased from 0.6% in January 2025 to 0.2% in January 2026, corresponding to a drop from 3 fatal crashes to 1. Serious injury crashes (A) remained relatively stable, accounting for 2.2% of crashes in January 2025 and 2.3% in January 2026. Minor injury crashes (B) saw a decrease in their share from 19% to 16.1%, while possible injury crashes (C) increased their share from 9.5% to 11.9%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor, 'No improper driving', increased in count from 79 in January 2025 to 109 in January 2026, representing a 37.97% increase. 'Followed too closely' also saw an increase in count from 50 to 61, a 22% rise. Conversely, crashes attributed to 'Exceeded authorized speed limit' decreased by 50% in count, from 20 to 10. 'Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings' increased by 47.06% in count, from 17 to 25, entering the top five factors for January 2026.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in 'Snow' weather conditions saw a significant increase, rising from 10 in January 2025 to 48 in January 2026. Similarly, 'Snow' road surface conditions increased from 12 to 47 crashes, and 'Ice' road surface conditions nearly doubled from 8 to 17 crashes. Crashes in 'Daylight' conditions increased from 190 to 271, while those in 'Dark - lighted roadway' conditions increased from 184 to 214.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of persons involved in crashes increased from 1036 in January 2025 to 1429 in January 2026. The 35-44 age group saw the largest increase in involved persons, rising by 82 from 174 to 256. All age groups experienced an increase in the number of involved persons. The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes, Toyota, Honda, and Ford, maintained their ranking and all saw an increase in counts.
Top Vehicle Makes (1,188 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
247 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (1,159 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 25 mph speed zones increased from 154 in January 2025 to 182 in January 2026. Notably, the 25 mph zone, which recorded 3 fatalities in January 2025, had no fatalities in January 2026. Crashes in 45 mph speed zones also increased from 27 to 38, and 55 mph speed zones saw an increase from 30 to 39 crashes.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · 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: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 604
- Total persons involved: 1,429
- Total vehicles involved: 1,188
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 2026." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/january-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: 2026-01-01 – 2026-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved