Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

226 CRASHES IN
FALL RIVER, MA
AUGUST 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstAugust 2024

In August 2025, Fall River, MA, experienced 226 total crashes, a 12.74% decrease compared to the 259 crashes recorded in August 2024. The most significant year-over-year shift was the reduction in fatalities from 1 in August 2024 to 0 in August 2025. Total injuries also decreased from 90 to 69 over the same period.

226

▼ -12.7%was 259

Total Crash Events

0

▼ -100.0%was 1

Persons Killed

69

▼ -23.3%was 90

Persons Injured

28

▼ -12.5%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. 10 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash activity in Fall River showed a downward trend year-over-year, with total crashes decreasing by 12.74% from 259 in August 2024 to 226 in August 2025. This reduction was accompanied by a decrease in total injuries, from 90 to 69, and a notable absence of fatalities in August 2025, down from one fatality in August 2024.

28

Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2025

▼ -12.5% vs prior (32)

Hit-and-run crashes decreased in count from 32 in August 2024 to 28 in August 2025. Despite this reduction in raw numbers, the hit-and-run rate remained stable at 12.4% of total crashes in both periods.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

69

Motorists Injured

Prior: 80↓-13.8%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal distribution of crashes showed some shifts year-over-year. While 4 PM remained the peak hour for crashes in both periods, the count decreased from 28 in August 2024 to 22 in August 2025. Peak crash days diversified in August 2025, with Sunday, Friday, and Saturday each recording 41 crashes, whereas August 2024 saw Friday as the sole peak day with 50 crashes.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crash severity data indicates a positive trend, with no fatalities reported in August 2025, compared to one fatal crash and one fatality in August 2024. Total injuries decreased from 90 to 69 year-over-year. The proportion of minor injury crashes decreased from 18.9% to 15%, while possible injury crashes saw a slight increase from 3.5% to 4.9% of total crashes.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury4serious injury crashes1.8%
→0.0%prior 4
Minor Injury34minor injury crashes15%
↓-30.6%prior 49
Possible Injury11possible injury crashes4.9%
↑22.2%prior 9
No Injury167no injury crashes73.9%
↓-6.7%prior 179

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

“No improper driving” remained the most frequently cited contributing factor in both periods, though its count decreased from 80 to 75 crashes. “Inattention” also saw a reduction from 32 to 25 crashes, and “Failed to yield right of way” decreased from 25 to 16 crashes. Conversely, “Exceeded authorized speed limit” increased in count from 3 crashes in August 2024 to 5 crashes in August 2025.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving75 (33.2%)↓-6.3%prior 80
Inattention25 (11.1%)↓-21.9%prior 32
Followed too closely16 (7.1%)↓-15.8%prior 19
Failed to yield right of way16 (7.1%)↓-36.0%prior 25
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road12 (5.3%)→0.0%prior 12
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner12 (5.3%)↑20.0%prior 10
Other improper action7 (3.1%)↓-53.3%prior 15
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings6 (2.7%)↓-33.3%prior 9
Exceeded authorized speed limit5 (2.2%)
Distracted5 (2.2%)→0.0%prior 5

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The majority of crashes in both periods occurred under clear weather, daylight, and dry road surface conditions. Crashes in clear weather decreased from 187 to 162, and crashes on wet road surfaces saw a significant reduction from 28 to 7 year-over-year. Crashes occurring in dark-lighted roadway conditions also decreased from 37 to 27.

Weather

Clear162 (72.3%)
↓-13.4%prior 187
Clear/Cloudy20 (8.9%)
↓-31.0%prior 29
Clear/Clear19 (8.5%)
Clear/Unknown10 (4.5%)
↑42.9%prior 7
Rain5 (2.2%)
↓-44.4%prior 9
Cloudy3 (1.3%)
↓-62.5%prior 8
Clear/Other3 (1.3%)
Cloudy/Clear1 (0.4%)
Rain/Cloudy1 (0.4%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight176 (78.6%)
↓-12.9%prior 202
Dark - lighted roadway27 (12.1%)
↓-27.0%prior 37
Dusk9 (4.0%)
↑50.0%prior 6
Dark - roadway not lighted7 (3.1%)
↑40.0%prior 5
Dawn3 (1.3%)
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (0.9%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry217 (96.9%)
↓-5.2%prior 229
Wet7 (3.1%)
↓-75.0%prior 28

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 521 in August 2024 to 447 in August 2025. Toyota, Honda, and Ford remained the top three vehicle makes involved in crashes, all showing a decrease in their respective counts. Across all age groups, the number of persons involved in crashes decreased, with the 0-15 age group seeing the largest drop from 50 to 29 individuals.

Top Vehicle Makes (447 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA64 (14.3%)
↓-24.7%prior 85
2
FORD48 (10.7%)
↓-12.7%prior 55
3
HONDA46 (10.3%)
↓-31.3%prior 67
4
CHEVROLET30 (6.7%)
↓-26.8%prior 41
5
NISSAN28 (6.3%)
↓-33.3%prior 42
6
HYUNDAI23 (5.1%)
↓-17.9%prior 28
7
JEEP18 (4%)
↓-21.7%prior 23
8
KIA17 (3.8%)
↓-15.0%prior 20
9
SUBARU16 (3.6%)
↓-5.9%prior 17
10
GMC14 (3.1%)
↑55.6%prior 9

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (425 persons with recorded sex)

Male251 (59.1%)
↓-2.3%prior 257
Female174 (40.9%)
↓-30.1%prior 249

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in 30 mph speed zones saw a notable decrease, falling from 99 crashes in August 2024 to 67 crashes in August 2025. Conversely, crashes in 65 mph zones increased from 9 to 13 year-over-year. There were no fatal crashes reported in any speed zone in August 2025, compared to one fatal crash in a 30 mph zone in August 2024.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · 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: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: FALL RIVER, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 226
  • Total persons involved: 541
  • Total vehicles involved: 447

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). "FALL RIVER, MA Crash Intelligence Report: August 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/fall-river/august-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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Fall River, MA Crash Report — August 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com