ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · LANCASTER, MA · APRIL 2026
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/lancaster/april-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
5 CRASHES IN
LANCASTER, MA
APRIL 2026
In Lancaster, MA, total crashes decreased significantly by 73.68%, falling from 19 in April 2025 to 5 in April 2026. This period also saw a notable decrease in total injuries, which dropped from 17 in April 2025 to 0 in April 2026. Total fatalities remained at 0 in both periods.
5
▼ -73.7%was 19
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
0
▼ -100.0%was 17
Persons Injured
0
Fatal Crash Events
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. 5 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend indicates a substantial decrease in crash activity year-over-year. Total crashes fell by 73.68%, from 19 in April 2025 to 5 in April 2026. This reduction was also reflected in injuries, which decreased from 17 in the prior period to 0 in the current period.
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes shifted from Friday, which had 5 crashes in April 2025, to Saturday, with 1 crash in April 2026. The peak hour for crashes remained 2p in both periods, although the crash count at this hour decreased from 3 in April 2025 to 1 in April 2026. This suggests a general reduction in crash frequency across all days and hours.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor in April 2026 was "Followed too closely" with 3 crashes, a count that remained consistent with April 2025. "No improper driving" decreased from 4 crashes in April 2025 to 1 crash in April 2026, a reduction of 3 crashes. Factors like "Failed to yield right of way" (3 crashes) and "Inattention" (2 crashes), which were present in April 2025, were not reported as contributing factors in April 2026.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
In April 2026, all 5 crashes occurred under clear or cloudy weather conditions, with no crashes reported in adverse weather. This contrasts with April 2025, where 5 out of 19 crashes occurred in rain or snow conditions. Regarding lighting, the proportion of crashes occurring in daylight decreased from 84.2% (16 of 19 crashes) in April 2025 to 60% (3 of 5 crashes) in April 2026. Road surface conditions could not be compared due to missing data for the current period.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Lighting condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Top Vehicle Makes (10 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Vehicle unit records
Sex Distribution (10 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in April 2026 were predominantly in the 55 mph speed zone, accounting for 4 out of 5 total crashes, compared to 6 out of 19 crashes in this zone in April 2025. Crashes in lower speed zones (30-50 mph), which totaled 13 in April 2025, were not present in April 2026. Fatal crash rates remained at 0 in all speed zones for both periods.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30 · 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: 2026-04-01 through 2026-04-30
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-04-01 through 2026-04-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: LANCASTER, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 5
- Total persons involved: 10
- Total vehicles involved: 10
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). "LANCASTER, MA Crash Intelligence Report: April 2026." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-04-01 to 2026-04-30. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/lancaster/april-2026-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: 2026-04-01 – 2026-04-30
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved