Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

207 CRASHES IN
LOWELL, MA
DECEMBER 2024

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2023

In December 2024, Lowell experienced 207 total crashes, a decrease from the 241 crashes reported in December 2023, representing a 14.11% reduction year-over-year. The most notable shift was the dramatic increase in crashes occurring in 25 mph speed zones, rising from 38 in the prior period to 179 in the current period.

207

-14.1%was 241

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

68

Persons Injured

22

-15.4%was 26

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

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend indicates a decrease in total crashes, falling from 241 in December 2023 to 207 in December 2024. This constitutes a reduction of 34 crashes, or a 14.11% decrease year-over-year.

22

Hit-and-Run Crashes — December 2024

-15.4% vs prior (26)

Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 26 in December 2023 to 22 in December 2024. The hit-and-run rate also saw a slight decrease, moving from 10.8% of total crashes to 10.6% year-over-year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

7

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 616.7%

1

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 2-50.0%

60

Motorists Injured

Prior: 600.0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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 Friday in December 2023, which recorded 55 crashes, to Tuesday in December 2024, with 37 crashes. While the peak hour remained 5 p.m. in both periods, the number of crashes at this hour decreased from 25 in the prior year to 19 in the current year.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Total injuries remained stable at 68 in both December 2023 and December 2024, with no fatalities reported in either period. Serious injury crashes (severity A) increased from 3 (1.2% share) to 4 (1.9% share), and possible injury crashes (severity C) rose from 21 (8.7% share) to 23 (11.1% share), while minor injury crashes (severity B) decreased from 28 (11.6% share) to 22 (10.6% share).

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury4serious injury crashes1.9%
33.3%prior 3
Minor Injury22minor injury crashes10.6%
-21.4%prior 28
Possible Injury23possible injury crashes11.1%
9.5%prior 21
No Injury151no injury crashes72.9%
7.1%prior 141

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factor, 'No improper driving,' decreased by 16.9% from 71 crashes in December 2023 to 59 crashes in December 2024. Factors such as 'Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings' and 'Failed to yield right of way' saw significant increases, rising by 116.7% (from 6 to 13 crashes) and 85.7% (from 7 to 13 crashes) respectively. Conversely, 'Followed too closely' decreased by 56.25%, from 16 crashes to 7 crashes.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving59 (28.5%)-16.9%prior 71
Inattention17 (8.2%)21.4%prior 14
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings13 (6.3%)116.7%prior 6
Failed to yield right of way13 (6.3%)85.7%prior 7
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road11 (5.3%)83.3%prior 6
Followed too closely7 (3.4%)-56.3%prior 16
Glare5 (2.4%)
Other improper action5 (2.4%)
Driving too fast for conditions3 (1.4%)
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner2 (1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather decreased from 171 to 140, and rain-related crashes fell from 41 to 22 year-over-year. In contrast, crashes in snowy conditions increased significantly from 2 in December 2023 to 11 in December 2024. Similarly, crashes on dry road surfaces decreased from 174 to 139, but crashes on snowy roads increased from 2 to 12.

Weather

Clear140 (69.0%)
-18.1%prior 171
Rain22 (10.8%)
-46.3%prior 41
Cloudy12 (5.9%)
0.0%prior 12
Snow11 (5.4%)
Clear/Clear6 (3.0%)
Rain/Snow2 (1.0%)
Other2 (1.0%)
Rain/Fog, smog, smoke1 (0.5%)
Cloudy/Cloudy1 (0.5%)
Rain/Cloudy1 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight105 (51.2%)
-9.5%prior 116
Dark - lighted roadway79 (38.5%)
-17.7%prior 96
Dusk8 (3.9%)
0.0%prior 8
Dark - roadway not lighted6 (2.9%)
-66.7%prior 18
Dawn4 (2.0%)
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (1.0%)
Other1 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry139 (68.8%)
-20.1%prior 174
Wet45 (22.3%)
-29.7%prior 64
Snow12 (5.9%)
Ice5 (2.5%)
Slush1 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 456 to 404 year-over-year. While Toyota remained the top make, its involvement decreased from 96 to 82, whereas Honda and Ford saw increases from 72 to 77 and 35 to 47 respectively. Notable shifts in person demographics include a 36.5% increase in the 26-34 age group (from 74 to 101 persons) and a 54% increase in the 35-44 age group (from 63 to 97 persons).

Top Vehicle Makes (404 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA82 (20.3%)
-14.6%prior 96
2
HONDA77 (19.1%)
6.9%prior 72
3
FORD47 (11.6%)
34.3%prior 35
4
CHEVROLET21 (5.2%)
-19.2%prior 26
5
NISSAN16 (4%)
-40.7%prior 27
6
KIA15 (3.7%)
36.4%prior 11
7
SUBARU14 (3.5%)
-12.5%prior 16
8
ACURA13 (3.2%)
0.0%prior 13
9
JEEP13 (3.2%)
-23.5%prior 17
10
HYUNDAI10 (2.5%)
-44.4%prior 18

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (468 persons with recorded sex)

Male258 (55.1%)
15.2%prior 224
Female210 (44.9%)
23.5%prior 170

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in the 25 mph speed zone dramatically increased from 38 in December 2023 to 179 in December 2024, making it the most common speed zone for crashes in the current period. Conversely, crashes in the 30 mph zone saw a sharp decline from 144 to 9. No fatalities were recorded in any speed zone during either period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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: 2024-12-01 through 2024-12-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2024-12-01 through 2024-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: LOWELL, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 207
  • Total persons involved: 530
  • Total vehicles involved: 404

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). "LOWELL, MA Crash Intelligence Report: December 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/lowell/december-2024-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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Lowell, MA Crash Report — December 2024 | ThatCarHitMe.com