Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

88 CRASHES IN
CAMBRIDGE, MA
APRIL 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstApril 2021

In April 2022, CAMBRIDGE experienced 88 total crashes, a slight increase from 85 crashes in April 2021. Total injuries saw a significant rise, increasing by 50% from 16 to 24 year-over-year. Fatalities remained at 0 in both periods, indicating no change in the most severe crash outcomes.

88

3.5%was 85

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

24

50.0%was 16

Persons Injured

23

-28.1%was 32

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

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, total crashes in CAMBRIDGE increased slightly by 3.5% from 85 in April 2021 to 88 in April 2022. This period also saw a notable 50% increase in total injuries, rising from 16 to 24, while fatal crashes remained stable at 0.

23

Hit-and-Run Crashes — April 2022

-28.1% vs prior (32)

Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 32 in April 2021 to 23 in April 2022, a reduction of 9 crashes. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate decreased from 37.6% to 26.1% year-over-year, indicating a downward trend.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 00.0%

4

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 40.0%

7

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 1600.0%

12

Motorists Injured

Prior: 119.1%

1

Other Injured

Prior: 0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · 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 with 17 crashes in April 2021 to Saturday with 21 crashes in April 2022. The peak hour remained 5p in both periods, though the count decreased slightly from 9 crashes in April 2021 to 8 crashes in April 2022.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes remained at 0 in both April 2021 and April 2022. Total injuries increased by 50%, rising from 16 to 24 year-over-year. While serious injuries remained constant at 2, minor injuries more than doubled from 5 to 15, and possible injuries decreased from 7 to 4.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury2serious injury crashes2.3%
0.0%prior 2
Minor Injury15minor injury crashes17%
200.0%prior 5
Possible Injury4possible injury crashes4.5%
-42.9%prior 7
No Injury48no injury crashes54.5%
-4.0%prior 50

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factor, 'No improper driving', decreased by 5 crashes, from 20 in April 2021 to 15 in April 2022. 'Inattention' increased by 3 crashes, rising from 4 to 7, and 'Other improper action' increased by 4 crashes, from 2 to 6. 'Failed to yield right of way' decreased by 1 crash, from 6 to 5.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving15 (17%)-25.0%prior 20
Inattention7 (8%)
Other improper action6 (6.8%)
Failed to yield right of way5 (5.7%)-16.7%prior 6
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road5 (5.7%)
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner3 (3.4%)
Distracted2 (2.3%)
Visibility obstructed2 (2.3%)
Made an improper turn1 (1.1%)
Followed too closely1 (1.1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions increased from 41 in April 2021 to 55 in April 2022. Conversely, crashes on 'Wet' road surfaces decreased from 13 to 8 over the same period. Crashes during 'Daylight' conditions remained stable, increasing marginally from 59 to 60.

Weather

Clear55 (69.6%)
34.1%prior 41
Clear/Clear9 (11.4%)
Cloudy7 (8.9%)
-41.7%prior 12
Rain5 (6.3%)
0.0%prior 5
Unknown/Unknown1 (1.3%)
Cloudy/Cloudy1 (1.3%)
Cloudy/Rain1 (1.3%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight60 (74.1%)
1.7%prior 59
Dark - lighted roadway17 (21.0%)
112.5%prior 8
Dusk4 (4.9%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry66 (89.2%)
13.8%prior 58
Wet8 (10.8%)
-38.5%prior 13

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The number of male persons involved in crashes increased from 60 in April 2021 to 87 in April 2022, while female persons increased from 57 to 65. The 26-34 age group saw an increase in persons involved from 27 to 35, and the 55-64 age group also increased from 14 to 25 persons.

Top Vehicle Makes (156 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA37 (23.7%)
19.4%prior 31
2
HONDA17 (10.9%)
0.0%prior 17
3
FORD11 (7.1%)
-38.9%prior 18
4
SUBARU7 (4.5%)
40.0%prior 5
5
CHEVROLET6 (3.8%)
6
NISSAN6 (3.8%)
-25.0%prior 8
7
HYUNDAI6 (3.8%)
0.0%prior 6
8
ACURA3 (1.9%)
9
MERCEDES-BENZ3 (1.9%)
10
BMW3 (1.9%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (154 persons with recorded sex)

Male87 (56.5%)
45.0%prior 60
Female65 (42.2%)
14.0%prior 57
R2 (1.3%)
100.0%prior 1

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in 25 mph speed zones increased from 58 in April 2021 to 66 in April 2022. Crashes in 35 mph zones decreased from 7 to 3, representing a reduction of 4 crashes. A new speed zone of 55 mph appeared in April 2022 with 1 crash, which was not present in the prior period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30 · 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: 2022-04-01 through 2022-04-30
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-04-01 through 2022-04-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: CAMBRIDGE, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 88
  • Total persons involved: 200
  • Total vehicles involved: 156

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). "CAMBRIDGE, MA Crash Intelligence Report: April 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-30. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/cambridge/april-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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Cambridge, MA Crash Report — April 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com