Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

516 CRASHES IN
BOSTON, MA
MAY 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstMay 2024

In May 2025, Boston recorded 516 crashes, a decrease of 3.9% from the 537 crashes reported in May 2024. A notable year-over-year shift was the absence of fatalities in May 2025, compared to one fatality in May 2024. Conversely, total injuries increased by 20.8%, rising from 236 to 285.

516

▼ -3.9%was 537

Total Crash Events

0

▼ -100.0%was 1

Persons Killed

285

▲ 20.8%was 236

Persons Injured

91

▲ 40.0%was 65

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

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, the number of crashes in Boston showed a slight downward trend, decreasing by 3.9% from 537 crashes in May 2024 to 516 crashes in May 2025. Despite this decrease in total crashes, the number of total injuries increased by 20.8% year-over-year, rising from 236 to 285.

91

Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2025

▲ 40.0% vs prior (65)

Hit-and-run crashes increased year-over-year, rising from 65 incidents in May 2024 to 91 incidents in May 2025. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate increased from 12.1% of all crashes in May 2024 to 17.6% in May 2025, indicating an upward trend.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1↓-100.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

12

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 7↑71.4%

15

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 9↑66.7%

251

Motorists Injured

Prior: 215↑16.7%

7

Other Injured

Prior: 5↑40.0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · 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 Thursday in May 2024, with 114 crashes, to Friday in May 2025, with 94 crashes. The peak hour remained 3 PM in both periods, though the number of crashes at this hour decreased from 50 in May 2024 to 41 in May 2025.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes decreased significantly, with 0 fatal crashes and 0 fatalities in May 2025 compared to 1 fatal crash and 1 fatality in May 2024. Serious injury crashes (severity 'A') saw a decrease from 13 (2.4% of crashes) in May 2024 to 5 (1% of crashes) in May 2025. Minor injury crashes (severity 'B') increased in proportion, accounting for 21.7% of crashes in May 2025 (112 crashes) compared to 19.9% in May 2024 (107 crashes).

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury5serious injury crashes1%
↓-61.5%prior 13
Minor Injury112minor injury crashes21.7%
↑4.7%prior 107
Possible Injury55possible injury crashes10.7%
↑10.0%prior 50
No Injury309no injury crashes59.9%
↓-13.2%prior 356

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Among contributing factors, 'No improper driving' decreased by 10 crashes (from 101 to 91), and 'Followed too closely' decreased by 7 crashes (from 69 to 62). Factors related to speeding also saw significant count reductions: 'Driving too fast for conditions' decreased by 11 crashes (from 21 to 10), and 'Exceeded authorized speed limit' decreased by 8 crashes (from 16 to 8).

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving91 (17.6%)↓-9.9%prior 101
Followed too closely62 (12%)↓-10.1%prior 69
Failed to yield right of way44 (8.5%)↓-10.2%prior 49
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings25 (4.8%)↓-26.5%prior 34
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road24 (4.7%)↑33.3%prior 18
Inattention14 (2.7%)↓-44.0%prior 25
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner14 (2.7%)↑55.6%prior 9
Made an improper turn13 (2.5%)↓-13.3%prior 15
Other improper action12 (2.3%)↓-36.8%prior 19
Driving too fast for conditions10 (1.9%)↓-52.4%prior 21

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in 'Daylight' conditions decreased from 328 in May 2024 to 302 in May 2025. The number of crashes on 'Dry' road surfaces decreased from 373 to 336 year-over-year. Crashes occurring in 'Rain' conditions remained relatively stable, with 74 crashes in May 2024 and 73 crashes in May 2025.

Weather

Clear199 (43.4%)
↓-45.8%prior 367
Clear/Clear99 (21.6%)
Rain57 (12.4%)
↓-8.1%prior 62
Cloudy54 (11.8%)
↑68.8%prior 32
Cloudy/Cloudy16 (3.5%)
Rain/Rain6 (1.3%)
Rain/Cloudy6 (1.3%)
Cloudy/Rain5 (1.1%)
↓-54.5%prior 11
Rain/Severe crosswinds3 (0.7%)
Other3 (0.7%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight302 (65.9%)
↓-7.9%prior 328
Dark - lighted roadway120 (26.2%)
↓-15.5%prior 142
Dusk14 (3.1%)
Dawn11 (2.4%)
↑22.2%prior 9
Dark - roadway not lighted5 (1.1%)
↓-16.7%prior 6
Dark - unknown roadway lighting3 (0.7%)
Other3 (0.7%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry336 (80.0%)
↓-9.9%prior 373
Wet82 (19.5%)
↑1.2%prior 81
Water (standing, moving)2 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of persons involved in crashes decreased from 1355 in May 2024 to 1232 in May 2025. The 26-34 age group saw a decrease from 298 persons in May 2024 to 260 persons in May 2025. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved in crashes, though its count decreased from 185 to 168, while Honda increased its count from 158 to 167.

Top Vehicle Makes (1,034 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA168 (16.2%)
↓-9.2%prior 185
2
HONDA167 (16.2%)
↑5.7%prior 158
3
FORD91 (8.8%)
↓-18.8%prior 112
4
NISSAN61 (5.9%)
↑10.9%prior 55
5
CHEVROLET59 (5.7%)
↑25.5%prior 47
6
HYUNDAI35 (3.4%)
↑2.9%prior 34
7
JEEP33 (3.2%)
↓-36.5%prior 52
8
MERCEDES-BENZ26 (2.5%)
↓-13.3%prior 30
9
ACURA26 (2.5%)
↑85.7%prior 14
10
BMW25 (2.4%)
↓-13.8%prior 29

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (1,022 persons with recorded sex)

Male625 (61.2%)
↓-8.8%prior 685
Female397 (38.8%)
↓-12.6%prior 454

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

There were no fatal crashes reported in any speed limit zone in May 2025, compared to one fatal crash in a 45 mph zone in May 2024. Crashes in the 25 mph speed zone decreased from 186 in May 2024 to 166 in May 2025. Similarly, crashes in the 55 mph speed zone decreased from 69 to 33.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · 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: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: BOSTON, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 516
  • Total persons involved: 1,232
  • Total vehicles involved: 1,034

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: May 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/may-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 — May 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com