Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

430 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
MARCH 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2024

In March 2025, Boston experienced 430 total crashes, a notable decrease from 524 crashes in March 2024, representing a 17.94% reduction year-over-year. A significant positive shift was the absence of traffic fatalities in March 2025, compared to one fatality in the prior year. Despite fewer crashes, total injuries increased by 16.06%, from 193 to 224.

430

-17.9%was 524

Total Crash Events

0

-100.0%was 1

Persons Killed

224

16.1%was 193

Persons Injured

81

11.0%was 73

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (0) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (0) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 43 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash incidents in Boston showed a declining trend, with total crashes decreasing by 17.94% from 524 in March 2024 to 430 in March 2025. Fatalities decreased from 1 to 0 year-over-year, indicating an improvement in the most severe outcomes. However, total injuries rose by 16.06%, from 193 to 224.

81

Hit-and-Run Crashes — March 2025

11.0% vs prior (73)

Hit-and-run crashes increased from 73 in March 2024 to 81 in March 2025, an increase of 8 incidents. The hit-and-run rate also rose from 13.9% to 18.8% of all crashes year-over-year, indicating an upward trend in these types of incidents.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1-100.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 00.0%

10

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 18-44.4%

6

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 60.0%

206

Motorists Injured

Prior: 16524.8%

2

Other Injured

Prior: 4-50.0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes shifted from Sunday (105 crashes) in March 2024 to Saturday (74 crashes) in March 2025. The peak crash hour also changed, from 1 PM (34 crashes) in the prior period to 2 PM (30 crashes) in the current period. These shifts suggest changes in when and which days crashes are most concentrated.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes decreased from 1 in March 2024 to 0 in March 2025. Serious injuries also saw a reduction, dropping from 9 (1.7% of crashes) to 4 (0.9% of crashes) year-over-year. Conversely, minor injuries increased from 74 to 83, while possible injuries decreased from 60 to 35.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury4serious injury crashes0.9%
-55.6%prior 9
Minor Injury83minor injury crashes19.3%
12.2%prior 74
Possible Injury35possible injury crashes8.1%
-41.7%prior 60
No Injury265no injury crashes61.6%
-28.2%prior 369

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The count of crashes attributed to 'Followed too closely' decreased significantly from 84 to 45, a 46.4% reduction. Crashes with 'No improper driving' increased from 75 to 85, a 13.3% rise in count. 'Driving too fast for conditions' also saw a substantial decrease, from 27 crashes to 7 crashes, a 74.1% reduction.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving85 (19.8%)13.3%prior 75
Followed too closely45 (10.5%)-46.4%prior 84
Failed to yield right of way38 (8.8%)-7.3%prior 41
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road24 (5.6%)4.3%prior 23
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings19 (4.4%)-17.4%prior 23
Exceeded authorized speed limit10 (2.3%)-37.5%prior 16
Other improper action9 (2.1%)-25.0%prior 12
Driving too fast for conditions7 (1.6%)-74.1%prior 27
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner6 (1.4%)-62.5%prior 16
Made an improper turn5 (1.2%)-54.5%prior 11

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions decreased from 294 to 220 year-over-year. Similarly, crashes during 'Rain' decreased from 101 to 32, and 'Cloudy' conditions saw a drop from 49 to 22 crashes. The number of crashes on 'Dry' road surfaces decreased from 328 to 297, while crashes on 'Wet' surfaces decreased from 120 to 51.

Weather

Clear220 (57.4%)
-25.2%prior 294
Clear/Clear78 (20.4%)
Rain32 (8.4%)
-68.3%prior 101
Cloudy22 (5.7%)
-55.1%prior 49
Cloudy/Cloudy8 (2.1%)
Rain/Rain7 (1.8%)
Cloudy/Rain6 (1.6%)
-64.7%prior 17
Cloudy/Clear3 (0.8%)
Rain/Cloudy2 (0.5%)
Unknown/Unknown1 (0.3%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight234 (60.6%)
-8.6%prior 256
Dark - lighted roadway128 (33.2%)
-29.3%prior 181
Dawn10 (2.6%)
-47.4%prior 19
Dusk9 (2.3%)
0.0%prior 9
Dark - roadway not lighted4 (1.0%)
-50.0%prior 8
Dark - unknown roadway lighting1 (0.3%)
-80.0%prior 5

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry297 (85.1%)
-9.5%prior 328
Wet51 (14.6%)
-57.5%prior 120
Other1 (0.3%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of persons involved in crashes decreased from 1271 to 992 year-over-year. Most age groups saw a decrease in representation, with the 26-34 age group showing the largest drop from 298 to 193 persons. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved, though its count decreased from 183 to 161.

Top Vehicle Makes (831 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA161 (19.4%)
-12.0%prior 183
2
HONDA121 (14.6%)
-12.3%prior 138
3
FORD76 (9.1%)
-26.2%prior 103
4
NISSAN44 (5.3%)
-36.2%prior 69
5
JEEP35 (4.2%)
-30.0%prior 50
6
CHEVROLET35 (4.2%)
-35.2%prior 54
7
HYUNDAI33 (4%)
26.9%prior 26
8
MAZDA23 (2.8%)
0.0%prior 23
9
BMW23 (2.8%)
-14.8%prior 27
10
SUBARU21 (2.5%)
-32.3%prior 31

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (825 persons with recorded sex)

Male518 (62.8%)
-26.1%prior 701
Female307 (37.2%)
-20.5%prior 386

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

The total number of crashes with a recorded speed limit decreased from 412 in March 2024 to 295 in March 2025. Crashes in 25 mph zones decreased from 179 to 159, while crashes in 45 mph zones dropped from 63 to 26. Notably, the single fatal crash in March 2024 occurred in a 25 mph zone, with no fatalities reported in any speed zone in March 2025.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · 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: 2025-03-01 through 2025-03-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-03-01 through 2025-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 430
  • Total persons involved: 992
  • Total vehicles involved: 831

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 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/march-2025-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 — March 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com