ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · BOSTON, MA · MARCH 2023
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/march-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
486 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
MARCH 2023
In March 2023, Boston experienced 486 total crashes, marking a 3.62% increase from the 469 crashes recorded in March 2022. This period saw a significant 200% rise in total fatalities, from 1 to 3, and a 118% increase in total injuries, from 100 to 218.
486
▲ 3.6%was 469
Total Crash Events
3
▲ 200.0%was 1
Persons Killed
218
▲ 118.0%was 100
Persons Injured
65
▲ 20.4%was 54
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (3) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 18 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Boston showed an upward trend year-over-year, with total crashes increasing by 3.62% from 469 to 486. More concerningly, total fatalities rose by 200% and total injuries by 118%, indicating a notable worsening of crash outcomes.
65
Hit-and-Run Crashes — March 2023
▲ 20.4% vs prior (54)
The number of hit-and-run crashes increased from 54 in March 2022 to 65 in March 2023. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate rose from 11.5% to 13.4% year-over-year, indicating an upward trend in such incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
14
Pedestrians Injured
5
Cyclists Injured
198
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · 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, increasing from 72 crashes in March 2022 to 85 crashes in March 2023. The peak hour also remained consistent at 4 p.m., with crash counts rising from 31 to 39. Notable increases were observed on Wednesdays, with crashes rising from 64 to 83, and on Fridays, from 68 to 79.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The fatal crash rate more than doubled, increasing from 0.21% in March 2022 to 0.62% in March 2023, corresponding to an increase from 1 to 3 fatal crashes. Serious injury crashes saw a substantial rise from 1 to 11, while minor injury crashes increased from 57 to 81, and possible injury crashes from 20 to 70.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The count of crashes attributed to 'No improper driving' significantly increased from 46 to 100, representing a 117.4% rise and shifting its rank from second to first. 'Followed too closely' crashes saw a slight increase from 54 to 56, while 'Failed to yield right of way' crashes rose by 75%, from 24 to 42. Factors such as 'Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road' and 'Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings' also saw substantial increases in count, rising by 120% (from 10 to 22) and 100% (from 10 to 20) respectively.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions slightly increased from 319 to 328, while those in rainy conditions decreased from 57 to 46. There was a notable increase in crashes during sleet conditions, rising from 1 to 9, and a doubling of crashes during dusk, from 6 to 12. Crashes on dry road surfaces increased from 338 to 351, whereas those on wet or icy surfaces decreased from 80 to 72 and 6 to 2, respectively.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top vehicle makes involved in crashes remained Toyota, Honda, and Ford, with Toyota and Honda seeing increased involvement from 170 to 178 and 142 to 157 respectively, while Ford's involvement decreased from 90 to 83. Significant increases in person involvement were observed across most age groups, including a 228.6% rise in the 0-15 age group (from 7 to 23 persons) and a 118.9% rise in the 45-54 age group (from 74 to 162 persons).
Top Vehicle Makes (993 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
154 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (1,029 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 25 mph speed zone slightly decreased from 172 to 169, with the number of fatal crashes remaining at 1. The 45 mph speed zone experienced an increase in crashes from 44 to 59, and recorded 1 fatal crash in March 2023 compared to none in March 2022. Conversely, crashes in the 35 mph zone decreased from 53 to 32, while those in the 55 mph zone saw a slight increase from 47 to 50.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 169 (0.592%) · 45 mph: 1 of 59 (1.695%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · 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: 2023-03-01 through 2023-03-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-03-01 through 2023-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 486
- Total persons involved: 1,195
- Total vehicles involved: 993
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: March 2023." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/march-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly
Period: 2023-03-01 – 2023-03-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved