ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CANTON, MA · DECEMBER 2024
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/canton/december-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
71 CRASHES IN
CANTON, MA
DECEMBER 2024
In December 2024, Canton experienced 71 crashes, a substantial increase compared to 37 crashes in December 2023, representing a 91.89% rise year-over-year. A notable shift is the occurrence of 1 fatality in the current period, whereas no fatalities were recorded in the prior year's December.
71
▲ 91.9%was 37
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
24
▲ 84.6%was 13
Persons Injured
6
▲ 200.0%was 2
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.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Canton show a significant upward trend year-over-year, with total crashes increasing from 37 in December 2023 to 71 in December 2024. This represents an increase of 34 crashes, or a 91.89% rise, indicating a substantial increase in crash frequency.
6
Hit-and-Run Crashes — December 2024
▲ 200.0% vs prior (2)
Hit-and-run crashes increased from 2 incidents in December 2023 to 6 incidents in December 2024. This represents a rise in the hit-and-run rate from 5.4% of total crashes in the prior period to 8.5% in the current period, indicating an upward trend in these types of incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Motorists Killed
24
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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 Tuesday with 8 crashes in December 2023 to Saturday and Thursday, both with 14 crashes, in December 2024. The peak crash hour also changed, moving from 6 PM with 6 crashes in the prior period to 1 PM, also with 6 crashes, in the current period, indicating a shift in the timing of peak crash activity.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
A significant change in severity is the presence of 1 fatal crash in December 2024, compared to zero fatal crashes in December 2023. While the number of injury crashes (serious, minor, possible) increased from 8 to 13, their proportion relative to total crashes slightly decreased from 21.6% to 18.4% year-over-year.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor, 'No improper driving,' increased from 10 crashes in December 2023 to 23 crashes in December 2024, an increase of 13 incidents. Conversely, 'Followed too closely' decreased from 11 crashes to 7 crashes year-over-year, while 'Failed to yield right of way' increased from 4 crashes to 6 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased from 22 in December 2023 to 35 in December 2024, and snow conditions, absent in the prior period, accounted for 6 crashes in the current period. Crashes on dry road surfaces increased from 30 to 42, while those on wet surfaces rose from 7 to 19. Regarding lighting, daylight crashes increased from 22 to 38, and crashes in 'Dark - lighted roadway' conditions saw a notable rise from 3 to 22.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 70 in December 2023 to 130 in December 2024. Toyota became the most frequently involved make with 19 vehicles, up from 9, while Honda remained prominent, increasing from 9 to 12. A significant increase was observed in the 0-15 age group, rising from 2 persons in the prior period to 21 persons in the current period, and the 35-44 age group also saw a substantial rise from 13 to 33 persons.
Top Vehicle Makes (130 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
12 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (151 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The fatal crash in December 2024 occurred in a 55 mph speed zone, which had no fatalities in the prior period. Crashes in the 45 mph zone increased from 8 to 17, and in the 35 mph zone, they rose from 2 to 14. Conversely, crashes in the 55 mph speed zone decreased from 10 in December 2023 to 3 in December 2024.
Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 3 (33.333%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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: 2024-12-01 through 2024-12-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-12-01 through 2024-12-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: CANTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 71
- Total persons involved: 167
- Total vehicles involved: 130
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). "CANTON, MA Crash Intelligence Report: December 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/canton/december-2024-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: 2024-12-01 – 2024-12-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved