Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

483 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
JULY 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstJuly 2021

In July 2022, Boston recorded 483 crashes, marking a 27.1% increase from the 380 crashes reported in July 2021. The total number of persons injured increased by 14.3% from 91 to 104. The most significant year-over-year shift was observed in bicycle crashes, which rose from 2 incidents in July 2021 to 12 incidents in July 2022.

483

27.1%was 380

Total Crash Events

2

Persons Killed

104

14.3%was 91

Persons Injured

64

77.8%was 36

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (2) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (2) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 189 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash incidents in Boston increased year-over-year, with total crashes rising by 27.1% from 380 in July 2021 to 483 in July 2022. Total fatalities remained stable at 2 in both periods, while total injuries increased by 14.3% from 91 to 104.

64

Hit-and-Run Crashes — July 2022

77.8% vs prior (36)

Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, rising by 77.8% from 36 incidents in July 2021 to 64 incidents in July 2022. Consequently, the hit-and-run crash rate also increased, from 9.5% of all crashes in July 2021 to 13.3% in July 2022, indicating an upward trend.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1-100.0%

1

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0%

1

Motorists Killed

Prior: 10.0%

8

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 1700.0%

13

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 0%

83

Motorists Injured

Prior: 90-7.8%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes shifted from Friday in July 2021 (72 crashes) to Saturday in July 2022 (90 crashes). While the peak hour remained 4 p.m. in both periods, the number of crashes during this hour increased from 23 to 29. Notably, crashes on Wednesday saw the largest percentage increase, rising by 52.2% from 46 to 70 incidents.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The number of total fatalities remained constant at 2 in both July 2021 and July 2022, resulting in a decrease in the fatal crash rate from 0.53% to 0.41%. Total injuries increased by 14.3%, from 91 to 104. While serious and minor injury counts remained stable at 2 and 44 respectively, possible injury crashes saw a 61.9% increase, rising from 21 to 34 incidents.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal2fatal crashes0.4%
0.0%prior 2
Serious Injury2serious injury crashes0.4%
0.0%prior 2
Minor Injury44minor injury crashes9.1%
0.0%prior 44
Possible Injury34possible injury crashes7%
61.9%prior 21
No Injury212no injury crashes43.9%
-9.4%prior 234

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The top contributing factors showed shifts year-over-year. 'Followed too closely' became the leading factor in July 2022 with 63 incidents, an increase of 14 crashes (28.6%) from 49 in July 2021. Conversely, 'No improper driving' decreased by 20 crashes (29.8%), falling from 67 to 47 incidents, and 'Driving too fast for conditions' saw a significant 75% decrease, dropping from 32 to 8 crashes.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Followed too closely63 (13%)28.6%prior 49
No improper driving47 (9.7%)-29.9%prior 67
Failed to yield right of way31 (6.4%)-8.8%prior 34
Inattention23 (4.8%)-11.5%prior 26
Exceeded authorized speed limit16 (3.3%)6.7%prior 15
Other improper action14 (2.9%)-17.6%prior 17
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road13 (2.7%)-31.6%prior 19
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner9 (1.9%)-30.8%prior 13
Driving too fast for conditions8 (1.7%)-75.0%prior 32
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings7 (1.4%)-56.3%prior 16

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crash conditions in July 2022 showed a notable shift towards clear and dry environments compared to July 2021. Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions increased by 197 incidents, from 217 to 414, while 'Rain' condition crashes decreased significantly from 65 to 10. Similarly, 'Dry' road surface crashes increased by 146 incidents, from 269 to 415, and 'Wet' road surface crashes decreased by 91 incidents, from 102 to 11.

Weather

Clear414 (93.5%)
90.8%prior 217
Cloudy16 (3.6%)
-51.5%prior 33
Rain10 (2.3%)
-84.6%prior 65
Cloudy/Rain2 (0.5%)
-88.2%prior 17
Other1 (0.2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight283 (63.2%)
26.9%prior 223
Dark - lighted roadway130 (29.0%)
1.6%prior 128
Dawn20 (4.5%)
100.0%prior 10
Dusk6 (1.3%)
-14.3%prior 7
Dark - roadway not lighted6 (1.3%)
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (0.4%)
Other1 (0.2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry415 (97.0%)
54.3%prior 269
Wet11 (2.6%)
-89.2%prior 102
Other2 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 34.6% from 722 in July 2021 to 972 in July 2022. Honda and Toyota remained the top two vehicle makes, with Honda increasing from 121 to 156 and Toyota from 114 to 151. Other makes showing significant increases include Lexus, which rose from 9 to 21 incidents, and Audi, which increased from 10 to 20.

Top Vehicle Makes (972 vehicles)

1
HONDA156 (16%)
28.9%prior 121
2
TOYOTA151 (15.5%)
32.5%prior 114
3
FORD105 (10.8%)
40.0%prior 75
4
NISSAN73 (7.5%)
49.0%prior 49
5
CHEVROLET50 (5.1%)
-2.0%prior 51
6
MERCEDES-BENZ29 (3%)
61.1%prior 18
7
JEEP28 (2.9%)
33.3%prior 21
8
VOLKSWAGEN26 (2.7%)
73.3%prior 15
9
HYUNDAI25 (2.6%)
25.0%prior 20
10
SUBARU24 (2.5%)
60.0%prior 15

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (624 persons with recorded sex)

Male417 (66.8%)
-9.5%prior 461
Female207 (33.2%)
-18.2%prior 253

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in 25 mph speed limit zones saw a substantial increase, rising by 96 incidents from 60 in July 2021 to 156 in July 2022, though the fatal crash rate in these zones decreased from 1.667% to 1.282%. Crashes in 45 mph zones decreased from 62 to 55, with the fatal rate dropping from 1.613% to 0%. Conversely, crashes in 55 mph zones increased from 64 to 74, with no fatalities reported in either period for this speed limit.

Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 2 of 156 (1.282%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · 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: 2022-07-01 through 2022-07-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-07-01 through 2022-07-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 483
  • Total persons involved: 1,101
  • Total vehicles involved: 972

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: July 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/july-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

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Boston, MA Crash Report — July 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com