Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

103 CRASHES IN
MALDEN, MA
MAY 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstMay 2021

In May 2022, MALDEN experienced 103 total crashes, a substantial increase compared to 69 crashes in May 2021. This represents a 49.28% rise in total crash incidents year-over-year. The most notable shift is the overall increase in crash volume, accompanied by a 31.82% increase in total injuries, from 22 to 29.

103

49.3%was 69

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

29

31.8%was 22

Persons Injured

31

55.0%was 20

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

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash incidents in MALDEN show a rising trend year-over-year, with total crashes increasing by 49.28% from 69 in May 2021 to 103 in May 2022. This indicates a significant upward shift in crash frequency for the period.

31

Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2022

55.0% vs prior (20)

Hit-and-run crashes increased from 20 incidents in May 2021 to 31 incidents in May 2022. The hit-and-run rate also saw a slight upward trend, rising from 29% of total crashes in May 2021 to 30.1% in May 2022.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

2

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 3-33.3%

3

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 1200.0%

24

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1833.3%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between the two periods. In May 2021, the peak day for crashes was Wednesday with 12 incidents, and the peak hour was 2 PM with 7 incidents. In May 2022, the peak day shifted to Tuesday with 24 crashes, more than doubling the prior year's peak day count, and the peak hour moved to 4 PM with 12 crashes.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

There were no fatalities reported in either May 2021 or May 2022. Serious injuries increased from 1 incident (1.4% of crashes) in May 2021 to 2 incidents (1.9%) in May 2022. Minor injuries saw a notable increase from 7 incidents (10.1%) to 16 incidents (15.5%) year-over-year, while possible injuries remained constant at 9 incidents, but decreased in their share of total crashes from 13% to 8.7%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury2serious injury crashes1.9%
100.0%prior 1
Minor Injury16minor injury crashes15.5%
128.6%prior 7
Possible Injury9possible injury crashes8.7%
0.0%prior 9
No Injury54no injury crashes52.4%
28.6%prior 42

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Among common contributing factors, 'No improper driving' incidents increased by 13, from 19 in May 2021 to 32 in May 2022. 'Inattention' saw a significant rise, increasing by 6 incidents from 1 to 7. Conversely, 'Distracted' driving incidents decreased by 1, from 2 in May 2021 to 1 in May 2022.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving32 (31.1%)68.4%prior 19
Inattention7 (6.8%)
Failed to yield right of way3 (2.9%)
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner2 (1.9%)
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings1 (1%)
Driving too fast for conditions1 (1%)
Operating defective equipment1 (1%)
Distracted1 (1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased from 45 incidents in May 2021 to 87 incidents in May 2022. Crashes on wet road surfaces decreased from 15 incidents in May 2021 to 4 incidents in May 2022, representing a substantial reduction in the proportion of crashes occurring under wet conditions. Incidents during daylight hours also increased from 43 to 65.

Weather

Clear68 (68.0%)
100.0%prior 34
Clear/Clear19 (19.0%)
72.7%prior 11
Cloudy8 (8.0%)
Unknown/Unknown2 (2.0%)
Rain1 (1.0%)
-80.0%prior 5
Cloudy/Rain1 (1.0%)
Fog, smog, smoke1 (1.0%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight65 (67.7%)
51.2%prior 43
Dark - lighted roadway23 (24.0%)
76.9%prior 13
Dusk2 (2.1%)
Dawn2 (2.1%)
Dark - roadway not lighted2 (2.1%)
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (2.1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry94 (95.9%)
100.0%prior 47
Wet4 (4.1%)
-73.3%prior 15

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

Toyota and Honda remained the top two vehicle makes involved in crashes, with Toyota increasing from 18 to 32 and Honda from 13 to 30. Jeep, which was a top make in May 2021 with 11 vehicles, decreased to 6 vehicles in May 2022. The age groups 21-25 and 35-44 saw notable increases in persons involved, with 21-25 rising from 17 to 32 and 35-44 increasing from 21 to 40.

Top Vehicle Makes (188 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA32 (17%)
77.8%prior 18
2
HONDA30 (16%)
130.8%prior 13
3
FORD15 (8%)
15.4%prior 13
4
NISSAN14 (7.4%)
100.0%prior 7
5
CHEVROLET9 (4.8%)
0.0%prior 9
6
DODGE8 (4.3%)
7
MERCEDES-BENZ7 (3.7%)
8
JEEP6 (3.2%)
-45.5%prior 11
9
LEXUS6 (3.2%)
10
SUBARU6 (3.2%)
-14.3%prior 7

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (178 persons with recorded sex)

Male102 (57.3%)
47.8%prior 69
Female75 (42.1%)
38.9%prior 54
R1 (0.6%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

There were no fatal crashes reported in any speed zone during either period. Crashes occurring in 25 mph speed zones increased from 53 in May 2021 to 76 in May 2022. Similarly, crashes in 30 mph speed zones rose from 11 to 17 year-over-year, indicating an increase in incidents across common speed limits.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · 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: 2022-05-01 through 2022-05-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-05-01 through 2022-05-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: MALDEN, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 103
  • Total persons involved: 234
  • Total vehicles involved: 188

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). "MALDEN, MA Crash Intelligence Report: May 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/malden/may-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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Malden, MA Crash Report — May 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com