Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

93 CRASHES IN
MARLBOROUGH, MA
DECEMBER 2023

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2022

Total crashes in Marlborough decreased by 24.4%, from 123 in December 2022 to 93 in December 2023. This notable reduction in overall incidents was accompanied by a significant 45.7% decrease in total injuries year-over-year. The data reflects a general downward trend in crash frequency and severity.

93

-24.4%was 123

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

19

-45.7%was 35

Persons Injured

10

-23.1%was 13

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

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend indicates a decrease in crash activity year-over-year. Total crashes fell from 123 in December 2022 to 93 in December 2023, representing a 24.4% reduction. Total injuries also saw a significant decline, decreasing from 35 to 19, a 45.7% reduction.

10

Hit-and-Run Crashes — December 2023

-23.1% vs prior (13)

The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased from 13 in December 2022 to 10 in December 2023. Despite this reduction in count, the hit-and-run crash rate slightly increased from 10.6% in the prior period to 10.8% in the current period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

19

Motorists Injured

Prior: 33-42.4%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

In December 2023, Friday emerged as the peak day for crashes with 18 incidents, shifting from Sunday which was the peak day in December 2022 with 23 crashes. The peak crash hour remained consistent at 5 p.m. for both periods, recording 13 crashes in the current period and 18 in the prior period. This suggests a change in the busiest day for crash occurrences.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Both periods reported zero fatalities. Total injuries decreased from 35 in December 2022 to 19 in December 2023. Serious injuries (Severity A) decreased from 3 incidents (2.4% of crashes) in the prior period to 1 incident (1.1% of crashes) in the current period. Minor injuries (Severity B) remained at 11 incidents, but their proportion of total crashes increased from 8.9% to 11.8% due to the overall decrease in crash volume.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury1serious injury crashes1.1%
-66.7%prior 3
Minor Injury11minor injury crashes11.8%
0.0%prior 11
Possible Injury3possible injury crashes3.2%
-62.5%prior 8
No Injury74no injury crashes79.6%
-24.5%prior 98

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The number of crashes attributed to 'No improper driving' decreased from 42 in December 2022 to 22 in December 2023. Similarly, 'Followed too closely' incidents dropped from 16 to 13 crashes, and 'Inattention' decreased from 15 to 12 crashes. Conversely, crashes where 'Failed to yield right of way' was a factor increased from 10 in the prior period to 14 in the current period.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving22 (23.7%)-47.6%prior 42
Failed to yield right of way14 (15.1%)40.0%prior 10
Followed too closely13 (14%)-18.8%prior 16
Inattention12 (12.9%)-20.0%prior 15
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings4 (4.3%)
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road4 (4.3%)-20.0%prior 5
Distracted3 (3.2%)
Glare2 (2.2%)
Driving too fast for conditions1 (1.1%)
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner1 (1.1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions decreased from 86 in December 2022 to 58 in December 2023. Incidents during 'Snow' conditions also significantly dropped from 9 to 1 crash year-over-year. However, crashes on 'Wet' road surfaces more than doubled, increasing from 13 in the prior period to 26 in the current period.

Weather

Clear58 (63.0%)
-32.6%prior 86
Rain11 (12.0%)
37.5%prior 8
Cloudy/Rain7 (7.6%)
Cloudy5 (5.4%)
Clear/Other3 (3.3%)
Rain/Cloudy2 (2.2%)
Fog, smog, smoke/Cloudy2 (2.2%)
Snow1 (1.1%)
-88.9%prior 9
Clear/Unknown1 (1.1%)
Cloudy/Fog, smog, smoke1 (1.1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight46 (50.0%)
-14.8%prior 54
Dark - lighted roadway28 (30.4%)
-37.8%prior 45
Dark - roadway not lighted8 (8.7%)
-38.5%prior 13
Dusk8 (8.7%)
-11.1%prior 9
Dawn2 (2.2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry66 (71.0%)
-24.1%prior 87
Wet26 (28.0%)
100.0%prior 13
Ice1 (1.1%)
-88.9%prior 9

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 225 in December 2022 to 176 in December 2023. Chevrolet became the most frequently involved make in December 2023 with 28 vehicles, up from 18 in the prior year, while Toyota's involvement decreased from 34 to 21. This indicates a shift in the most common vehicle makes involved in crashes.

Top Vehicle Makes (176 vehicles)

1
CHEVROLET28 (15.9%)
55.6%prior 18
2
FORD24 (13.6%)
9.1%prior 22
3
TOYOTA21 (11.9%)
-38.2%prior 34
4
HONDA16 (9.1%)
-33.3%prior 24
5
NISSAN13 (7.4%)
-48.0%prior 25
6
JEEP9 (5.1%)
28.6%prior 7
7
SUBARU7 (4%)
16.7%prior 6
8
ACURA6 (3.4%)
9
BMW5 (2.8%)
-44.4%prior 9
10
HYUNDAI5 (2.8%)
-44.4%prior 9

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (177 persons with recorded sex)

Male90 (50.8%)
-41.6%prior 154
Female87 (49.2%)
6.1%prior 82

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes occurring in 30 mph speed zones decreased from 46 in December 2022 to 30 in December 2023. Similarly, crashes in 65 mph zones decreased from 16 to 11 year-over-year. There were no fatal crashes reported in any speed zone for either period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31 · 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: 2023-12-01 through 2023-12-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2023-12-01 through 2023-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: MARLBOROUGH, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 93
  • Total persons involved: 198
  • Total vehicles involved: 176

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). "MARLBOROUGH, MA Crash Intelligence Report: December 2023." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2023-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/marlborough/december-2023-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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Marlborough, MA Crash Report — December 2023 | ThatCarHitMe.com