ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · FITCHBURG, MA · 2022
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/fitchburg/2022-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
1,050 CRASHES IN
FITCHBURG, MA
2022
In 2022, Fitchburg recorded 1,050 total vehicle crashes, a notable 18.7% decrease from the 1,292 crashes documented in 2021. While the number of fatalities remained constant at one death in each period, the total number of injuries saw a significant year-over-year reduction of 27.5%, falling from 295 to 214.
1,050
▼ -18.7%was 1,292
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
214
▼ -27.5%was 295
Persons Injured
12
▼ -25.0%was 16
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. 84 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend in traffic incidents shows a significant year-over-year improvement. Total crashes decreased by 18.7%, from 1,292 in 2021 to 1,050 in 2022. Similarly, the number of people injured in these incidents fell by 27.5%, while the number of fatalities held steady at one for both years.
12
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2022
▼ -25.0% vs prior (16)
The number of hit-and-run incidents decreased from 16 in 2021 to 12 in 2022, a 25% reduction. The hit-and-run rate, which measures the proportion of total crashes that were hit-and-runs, also saw a slight downward trend, moving from 1.2% to 1.1% year-over-year.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
8
Pedestrians Injured
3
Cyclists Injured
202
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The time of day when crashes most frequently occurred remained consistent, with the 4 p.m. hour being the peak for both 2022 (97 crashes) and 2021 (113 crashes). However, the peak day for crashes shifted from Wednesday (212 crashes) in the prior year to Saturday (174 crashes) in the current year. Crash volumes on the peak day were lower in 2022 compared to the peak day in 2021.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While the absolute number of fatal crashes remained unchanged at one for both 2022 and 2021, the fatal crash rate increased from 0.08% to 0.1% due to the lower overall crash total in 2022. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injuries increased from 74.1% to 77.0% year-over-year. Crashes involving minor injuries fell from 9.6% of the total to 8.9%, and possible injury crashes dropped from a 6.5% share to 4.6%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors remained broadly similar year-over-year, with 'Inattention' being the most cited driver error in both periods, though its count decreased by 6.0% from 168 to 158. 'Failed to yield right of way' saw a significant 23.1% reduction in count, falling from 108 incidents in 2021 to 83 in 2022. Another notable change was the 55.9% drop in crashes attributed to 'Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings,' which decreased from 34 to 15.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The proportion of crashes occurring in clear weather increased from 68.3% in 2021 to 73.0% in 2022. Conversely, the share of crashes happening during daylight hours decreased slightly from 71.4% to 69.0%. Crashes on non-dry road surfaces (such as wet, ice, or snow) represented a larger share of the total in 2022, rising to 26.3% from 21.8% in the previous year.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent across both years: Toyota, Honda, and Ford, although their absolute numbers decreased in line with the overall reduction in collisions. In 2022, Toyota was the most common make with 310 vehicles involved, down from 362 in 2021. The 26-34 age group consistently represented the largest segment of individuals involved in crashes, accounting for 19.0% of persons in 2022 (422 people) and 19.3% in 2021 (536 people).
Top Vehicle Makes (1,862 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
222 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (1,978 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 25 mph zones were the most frequent in both periods, accounting for 471 incidents in 2022 and 571 in 2021. The single fatal crash in 2022 occurred in a 55 mph zone, a shift from 2021 when the fatality was recorded in a 30 mph zone. There was a notable increase in crashes within 55 mph zones, which rose from 41 in 2021 to 61 in 2022.
Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 61 (1.639%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · 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: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: FITCHBURG, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 1,050
- Total persons involved: 2,218
- Total vehicles involved: 1,862
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). "FITCHBURG, MA Crash Intelligence Report: 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/fitchburg/2022-annual-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: 2022-01-01 – 2022-12-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved