Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

500 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
JUNE 2023

All metrics benchmarked againstJune 2022

In June 2023, there were 500 crashes, marking a 78.6% increase from the 280 crashes recorded in June 2022. Total fatalities significantly decreased by 80%, from 5 in June 2022 to 1 in June 2023, despite a 75% rise in total injuries. This period saw a substantial increase in overall crash incidents compared to the prior year.

500

78.6%was 280

Total Crash Events

1

-80.0%was 5

Persons Killed

203

75.0%was 116

Persons Injured

79

229.2%was 24

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

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash incidents in Boston increased significantly year-over-year, with 500 crashes in June 2023 compared to 280 in June 2022, representing a 78.6% rise. Despite this increase in total crashes, total fatalities decreased by 80%, from 5 to 1, indicating a positive trend in preventing fatal outcomes per crash.

79

Hit-and-Run Crashes — June 2023

229.2% vs prior (24)

Hit-and-run crashes increased significantly year-over-year, rising from 24 incidents in June 2022 to 79 incidents in June 2023, a 229.2% increase. The hit-and-run rate also saw an upward trend, increasing from 8.6% of all crashes in the prior period to 15.8% in the current period. This indicates a notable increase in the proportion of crashes involving a hit-and-run.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1-100.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

1

Motorists Killed

Prior: 4-75.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 00.0%

10

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 4150.0%

8

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 2300.0%

183

Motorists Injured

Prior: 11066.4%

2

Other Injured

Prior: 0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns for crashes shifted between June 2022 and June 2023. The peak day for crashes moved from Wednesday with 51 incidents in 2022 to Friday with 94 incidents in 2023. Similarly, the peak crash hour shifted from 3 PM with 23 crashes in 2022 to 4 PM with 39 crashes in 2023, indicating a shift in peak activity times.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The fatal crash rate saw a significant decrease, falling from 1.43% in June 2022 to 0.2% in June 2023. While the proportion of serious injury crashes increased from 1.4% to 2.6%, the percentage of minor injury crashes slightly decreased from 18.2% to 15.6%. Possible injury crashes increased in proportion from 9.6% to 11.8%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal1fatal crashes0.2%
-75.0%prior 4
Serious Injury13serious injury crashes2.6%
225.0%prior 4
Minor Injury78minor injury crashes15.6%
52.9%prior 51
Possible Injury59possible injury crashes11.8%
118.5%prior 27
No Injury330no injury crashes66%
78.4%prior 185

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factor, 'No improper driving,' saw a count increase of 50 crashes, rising from 41 in June 2022 to 91 in June 2023, and moved from second to first rank. 'Followed too closely' increased by 12 crashes, from 67 to 79, dropping from first to second rank. 'Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings' experienced a notable increase of 22 crashes, from 9 to 31, significantly impacting its ranking.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving91 (18.2%)122.0%prior 41
Followed too closely79 (15.8%)17.9%prior 67
Failed to yield right of way49 (9.8%)40.0%prior 35
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings31 (6.2%)244.4%prior 9
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner19 (3.8%)171.4%prior 7
Exceeded authorized speed limit15 (3%)7.1%prior 14
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road15 (3%)66.7%prior 9
Inattention15 (3%)-25.0%prior 20
Driving too fast for conditions14 (2.8%)40.0%prior 10
Other improper action14 (2.8%)-22.2%prior 18

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased by 89, from 226 in June 2022 to 315 in June 2023. Crashes in rainy conditions also saw a substantial rise, increasing by 44 from 21 to 65. The number of crashes on wet road surfaces more than doubled, increasing by 46 from 33 to 79, indicating a higher proportion of crashes occurring under adverse conditions in the current period.

Weather

Clear315 (70.5%)
39.4%prior 226
Rain65 (14.5%)
209.5%prior 21
Cloudy49 (11.0%)
157.9%prior 19
Cloudy/Rain13 (2.9%)
116.7%prior 6
Clear/Cloudy2 (0.4%)
Other1 (0.2%)
Rain/Clear1 (0.2%)
Rain/Cloudy1 (0.2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight317 (67.6%)
58.5%prior 200
Dark - lighted roadway131 (27.9%)
95.5%prior 67
Dawn8 (1.7%)
Dusk7 (1.5%)
40.0%prior 5
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (0.4%)
Dark - roadway not lighted2 (0.4%)
Other2 (0.4%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry358 (81.9%)
47.3%prior 243
Wet79 (18.1%)
139.4%prior 33

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The age distribution of persons involved in crashes showed increases across all top age groups, with the 26-34 age group increasing from 171 persons in June 2022 to 269 in June 2023. The ranking of top vehicle makes shifted, with Toyota becoming the most frequently involved make in June 2023 with 188 vehicles, surpassing Honda which had 143 vehicles. In the prior period, Honda was the top make with 94 vehicles, closely followed by Toyota with 93.

Top Vehicle Makes (987 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA188 (19%)
102.2%prior 93
2
HONDA143 (14.5%)
52.1%prior 94
3
FORD108 (10.9%)
103.8%prior 53
4
NISSAN58 (5.9%)
107.1%prior 28
5
JEEP48 (4.9%)
128.6%prior 21
6
CHEVROLET45 (4.6%)
21.6%prior 37
7
SUBARU35 (3.5%)
133.3%prior 15
8
BMW24 (2.4%)
166.7%prior 9
9
HYUNDAI23 (2.3%)
91.7%prior 12
10
ACURA23 (2.3%)
228.6%prior 7

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (996 persons with recorded sex)

Male607 (60.9%)
45.9%prior 416
Female389 (39.1%)
86.1%prior 209

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in 25 mph zones increased from 62 in June 2022 to 165 in June 2023, while the fatal rate in these zones decreased from 1.613% to 0.606%. Crashes in 55 mph zones also increased from 44 to 53, with the fatal rate in these zones decreasing from 2.273% to 0% year-over-year. Overall, there was an increase in crash counts across several speed limit zones, but a decrease in the fatal crash rate within the 25 mph and 55 mph zones.

Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 165 (0.606%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30 · 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: 2023-06-01 through 2023-06-30
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2023-06-01 through 2023-06-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 500
  • Total persons involved: 1,210
  • Total vehicles involved: 987

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: June 2023." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-30. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/june-2023-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 — June 2023 | ThatCarHitMe.com