Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

124 CRASHES IN
FITCHBURG, MA
FEBRUARY 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstFebruary 2021

In February 2022, FITCHBURG, MA experienced 124 crashes, a slight decrease of 0.8% compared to the 125 crashes recorded in February 2021. Despite the minor reduction in overall crashes, total injuries saw a substantial increase, rising from 8 in the prior period to 21 in the current period, representing a 162.5% surge.

124

-0.8%was 125

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

21

162.5%was 8

Persons Injured

2

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

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash incidents in FITCHBURG, MA remained relatively stable year-over-year, with a minor decrease of 0.8% from 125 crashes in February 2021 to 124 crashes in February 2022. However, total injuries increased significantly by 162.5%, from 8 injuries in the prior period to 21 injuries in the current period.

2

Hit-and-Run Crashes — February 2022

0.0% vs prior (2)

The number of hit-and-run crashes remained constant at 2 in both February 2021 and February 2022. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate also remained stable at 1.6% of all crashes for both periods.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

1

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 0%

20

Motorists Injured

Prior: 8150.0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · 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 Sunday in February 2021, with 21 incidents, to Saturday in February 2022, with 27 incidents. The peak hour also shifted, moving from 4 PM in the prior period (12 crashes) to 5 PM in the current period (18 crashes).

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes and fatalities remained at zero for both February 2021 and February 2022. Total injuries, however, increased from 8 in the prior period to 21 in the current period. Specifically, the number of persons sustaining minor injuries rose from 2 to 14, and possible injuries increased from 5 to 6, while serious injuries remained constant at 1 in both periods.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury1serious injury crashes0.8%
0.0%prior 1
Minor Injury7minor injury crashes5.6%
250.0%prior 2
Possible Injury4possible injury crashes3.2%
-20.0%prior 5
No Injury97no injury crashes78.2%
-9.3%prior 107

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The top contributing factor, 'No improper driving,' saw a slight decrease from 47 crashes in February 2021 to 46 crashes in February 2022. 'Inattention' increased from 8 to 14 crashes, while 'Other improper action' rose from 9 to 12 crashes. Conversely, 'Followed too closely' decreased from 8 to 4 crashes, and 'Failed to yield right of way' dropped from 9 to 3 crashes.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving46 (37.1%)-2.1%prior 47
Inattention14 (11.3%)75.0%prior 8
Other improper action12 (9.7%)33.3%prior 9
Driving too fast for conditions6 (4.8%)
Followed too closely4 (3.2%)-50.0%prior 8
Failed to yield right of way3 (2.4%)-66.7%prior 9
Glare2 (1.6%)
Visibility obstructed2 (1.6%)
Exceeded authorized speed limit2 (1.6%)
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner2 (1.6%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased from 61 to 71, while those in snow decreased from 17 to 13. Regarding lighting, crashes during daylight hours decreased from 84 to 74, but incidents in dark-lighted roadways increased from 27 to 35. On road surfaces, crashes on dry roads slightly rose from 57 to 60, and crashes on icy roads doubled from 14 to 28, while those on snowy roads significantly decreased from 31 to 11.

Weather

Clear71 (58.2%)
16.4%prior 61
Snow13 (10.7%)
-23.5%prior 17
Snow/Sleet, hail (freezing rain or drizzle)7 (5.7%)
Rain7 (5.7%)
Sleet, hail (freezing rain or drizzle)6 (4.9%)
Cloudy5 (4.1%)
-61.5%prior 13
Cloudy/Snow3 (2.5%)
Snow/Blowing sand, snow2 (1.6%)
-66.7%prior 6
Cloudy/Sleet, hail (freezing rain or drizzle)2 (1.6%)
Cloudy/Rain1 (0.8%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight74 (60.7%)
-11.9%prior 84
Dark - lighted roadway35 (28.7%)
29.6%prior 27
Dark - roadway not lighted9 (7.4%)
50.0%prior 6
Dusk3 (2.5%)
Dark - unknown roadway lighting1 (0.8%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry60 (48.8%)
5.3%prior 57
Ice28 (22.8%)
100.0%prior 14
Wet21 (17.1%)
40.0%prior 15
Snow11 (8.9%)
-64.5%prior 31
Slush3 (2.4%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The number of persons aged 26-34 involved in crashes increased from 45 in February 2021 to 60 in February 2022, while those aged 21-25 decreased from 34 to 28. In terms of vehicle makes, Toyota became the most frequently involved, rising from 26 vehicles in the prior period to 39 in the current period, surpassing Ford which decreased from 29 to 26 vehicles.

Top Vehicle Makes (214 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA39 (18.2%)
50.0%prior 26
2
HONDA31 (14.5%)
24.0%prior 25
3
FORD26 (12.1%)
-10.3%prior 29
4
CHEVROLET16 (7.5%)
-15.8%prior 19
5
NISSAN12 (5.6%)
0.0%prior 12
6
SUBARU12 (5.6%)
0.0%prior 12
7
HYUNDAI12 (5.6%)
33.3%prior 9
8
GMC8 (3.7%)
60.0%prior 5
9
JEEP8 (3.7%)
-33.3%prior 12
10
DODGE6 (2.8%)
-45.5%prior 11

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (220 persons with recorded sex)

Male116 (52.7%)
0.9%prior 115
Female104 (47.3%)
-7.1%prior 112

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes occurring in 25 MPH speed zones decreased from 60 in February 2021 to 47 in February 2022. Conversely, incidents in 30 MPH zones increased from 22 to 26, and crashes in 55 MPH zones saw an increase from 2 to 7. There were no fatal crashes recorded in any speed zone during either period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28 · 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: 2022-02-01 through 2022-02-28
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-02-01 through 2022-02-28 (28 days)
  • Geographic scope: FITCHBURG, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 124
  • Total persons involved: 248
  • Total vehicles involved: 214

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: February 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-02-01 to 2022-02-28. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/fitchburg/february-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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Fitchburg, MA Crash Report — February 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com