Fatal Crashes Only
This report covers fatal crashes only, from the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System — the federal census of every crash on a US public road that killed someone within 30 days. It does not include injury or property-damage-only crashes, and its totals are not comparable with the all-severity crash reports published elsewhere on this site.
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An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MASSACHUSETTS · SEPTEMBER 2023
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.
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
30 CRASHES IN
MASSACHUSETTS
SEPTEMBER 2023
Fatal crashes in September 2023 decreased by 16.7% year-over-year, from 36 in September 2022 to 30. Fatalities also saw a decline of 13.5%, dropping from 37 to 32 over the same period. The most notable shift was a 125% increase in DUI-related fatal crashes, rising from 4 to 9.
30
▼ -16.7%was 36
Total Crash Events
32
▼ -13.5%was 37
Persons Killed
9
▼ -55.0%was 20
Persons Injured
1
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (32) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (30) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Fatal crashes decreased by 16.7% year-over-year, from 36 in September 2022 to 30 in September 2023. Fatalities also saw a decrease of 13.5%, dropping from 37 to 32 over the same period. This indicates a positive trend with fewer fatal incidents and resulting deaths.
1
Hit-and-Run Crashes — September 2023
▼ 0.0% vs prior (1)
The number of hit-and-run fatal crashes remained stable at 1 in both September 2023 and September 2022. However, the hit-and-run rate, as a percentage of all fatal crashes, increased from 2.8% to 3.3% due to the overall decrease in fatal crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
6
Pedestrians Killed
2
Cyclists Killed
24
Motorists Killed
0
Pedestrians Injured
0
Cyclists Injured
9
Motorists Injured
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
In September 2023, Friday was the peak day for fatal crashes with 10 incidents, shifting from Sunday's peak of 8 fatal crashes in September 2022. The peak hour for fatal crashes in September 2023 was 10 p.m. with 4 incidents, while September 2022 saw its peak at 3 p.m., also with 4 fatal crashes. This suggests a shift in the timing of peak fatal crash activity towards later hours on Fridays.
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Road & Environmental Conditions
Clear weather conditions accounted for 20 fatal crashes in September 2023, a decrease from 29 in September 2022. Fatal crashes occurring in dark, unlighted conditions increased from 6 in September 2022 to 11 in September 2023. Daylight fatal crashes decreased from 19 to 10 year-over-year. Road surface data was not available for comparison.
Weather
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Lighting condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Top Vehicle Makes (44 vehicles)
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Vehicle unit records
1 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (69 persons with recorded sex)
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Fatal crashes occurring in 30 mph speed zones increased from 7 in September 2022 to 9 in September 2023. Conversely, fatal crashes in 35 mph zones decreased from 9 to 4. Fatal crashes in 65 mph zones saw an increase from 1 to 5.
Fatal crashes by zone: 15 mph: 1 of 1 (100%) · 20 mph: 1 of 1 (100%) · 25 mph: 4 of 4 (100%) · 30 mph: 9 of 9 (100%) · 35 mph: 4 of 4 (100%) · 45 mph: 1 of 1 (100%) · 50 mph: 2 of 2 (100%) · 60 mph: 2 of 2 (100%) · 65 mph: 5 of 5 (100%)
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Posted speed limit at crash location
Manner of Collision
The dominant manner of collision, 'The First Harmful Event was Not a Collision with a Motor Vehicle in Transport', decreased from 23 fatal crashes (63.9%) in September 2022 to 20 fatal crashes (66.7%) in September 2023. Front-to-Front fatal collisions significantly decreased from 10 (27.8%) to 1 (3.3%) year-over-year. Angle collisions saw a slight increase from 3 (8.3%) to 4 (13.3%) fatal crashes.
Manner of Collision
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash-level records
Vehicle Type
Compact Utility vehicles involved in fatal crashes increased from 6 in September 2022 to 14 in September 2023. Two-wheel motorcycles involved in fatal crashes increased from 5 to 8. Fatal crashes involving 4-door sedans decreased from 14 to 5.
Vehicle Type
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Vehicle unit records
Roadway Functional Class
Fatal crashes on Minor Arterial roadways decreased from 14 in September 2022 to 10 in September 2023. Crashes on Principal Arterial roadways, combining 'Other Principal Arterial' and 'Principal Arterial - Other', decreased from a total of 13 in September 2022 to 6 in September 2023. Interstate fatal crashes increased from 1 in September 2022 to 4 in September 2023.
Roadway Functional Class
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash-level records
Roadway Ownership
Fatal crashes on roadways owned by State Highway Agencies decreased slightly from 14 in September 2022 to 13 in September 2023. Fatal crashes on Town or Township Highway Agency roads also decreased from 13 to 10. Conversely, City or Municipal Highway Agencies saw an increase in fatal crashes on their roads, from 5 to 7.
Roadway Ownership
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash-level records
Person Type
The number of drivers involved in fatal crashes decreased from 49 in September 2022 to 43 in September 2023. Pedestrians involved in fatal crashes also saw a notable decrease from 12 to 6. Bicyclists involved in fatal crashes increased from 1 to 2.
Person Type
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash-level records
Person Injury Severity
The number of fatal injuries decreased from 37 in September 2022 to 32 in September 2023. Serious injuries also decreased from 8 to 3. The count of persons with no injuries in fatal crashes increased from 24 to 28.
Person Injury Severity
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash-level records
Occupant Safety Equipment
The number of persons using shoulder and lap belts in fatal crashes remained constant at 34 in both periods. However, the number of persons reported as using no safety equipment decreased from 21 in September 2022 to 15 in September 2023. The count of unknown safety equipment use also decreased from 11 to 7.
Occupant Safety Equipment
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Point of Impact
The '12 Clock Point' (front) remained the dominant point of impact, though its count decreased significantly from 35 in September 2022 to 18 in September 2023. 'Right-Front Side' impacts decreased from 4 to 1. 'Left' (side) impacts increased from 0 to 4, and '6 Clock Point' (rear) impacts increased from 0 to 4.
Point of Impact
"Other" combines 6 smaller categories (6 records): Right-Front Side (1), 3 Clock Point (1), 4 Clock Point (1), 7 Clock Point (1), Non-Collision (1), Right (1).
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Vehicle unit records
Vehicles Per Crash
Single-vehicle fatal crashes decreased from 23 in September 2022 to 17 in September 2023. The number of two-vehicle fatal crashes remained stable at 12 in both periods. There was 1 fatal crash involving three vehicles in September 2023, compared to none in the prior period.
Vehicles Per Crash
Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Crash-level records
Data Sources & Methodology
Primary Data Source
All crash data in this report is sourced from NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes), accessed programmatically via the NHTSA FARS 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: NHTSA FARS 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: 2023-09-01 through 2023-09-30
- Report generated: August 5, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-09-01 through 2023-09-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: Massachusetts
- Total crash records analyzed: 30
- Total persons involved: 69
- Total vehicles involved: 44
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). "Massachusetts Crash Intelligence Report: September 2023." Published August 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30. Data source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes), NHTSA FARS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/fatal/statewide/september-2023-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: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · NHTSA FARS
Period: 2023-09-01 – 2023-09-30
Generated: August 5, 2026 · All rights reserved
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