ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MERRIMAC, MA · OCTOBER 2024
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/merrimac/october-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
4 CRASHES IN
MERRIMAC, MA
OCTOBER 2024
In October 2024, Merrimac experienced 4 crashes, a significant decrease of 66.67% compared to the 12 crashes recorded in October 2023. The most notable year-over-year shift was the substantial reduction in total crashes and associated injuries, with total injuries falling from 6 in the prior period to 1 in the current period.
4
▼ -66.7%was 12
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
1
▼ -83.3%was 6
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.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, the trend for October in Merrimac indicates a significant decrease in crash activity year-over-year. Total crashes fell by 66.67%, from 12 crashes in October 2023 to 4 crashes in October 2024. This reduction suggests a positive change in road safety for the month.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Motorists Killed
1
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · 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 year-over-year. In October 2024, the peak day for crashes was Tuesday with 2 incidents, and the peak hour was 11 PM with 1 incident. This contrasts with October 2023, when the peak day was Saturday with 3 crashes, and the peak hour was 1 PM with 2 crashes, indicating a change in when crashes are most frequent.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes saw a notable decrease year-over-year. Both periods recorded 0 fatal crashes and 0 fatalities. However, the number of crashes resulting in minor injuries decreased from 4 (33.3% of all crashes) in October 2023 to 1 (25% of all crashes) in October 2024, indicating fewer injury-involved incidents.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The distribution of contributing factors changed between the two periods. 'No improper driving' decreased from 4 crashes in October 2023 to 2 crashes in October 2024. Factors such as 'Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road' and 'Fatigued/asleep' each appeared in 1 crash in October 2024, while they were not present in October 2023. Conversely, 'Inattention', 'Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner', 'Swerving or avoiding due to wind, slippery surface, vehicle, object, vulnerable user in roadway', and 'Visibility obstructed' each contributed to 1 crash in October 2023 but none in October 2024.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Weather conditions during crashes were exclusively clear in October 2024, accounting for all 4 crashes. This is a change from October 2023, where 7 crashes occurred in clear conditions, 1 in clear/other, 1 in cloudy, 1 in cloudy/rain, 1 in rain, and 1 in rain/cloudy conditions. Regarding lighting, crashes in October 2024 were evenly split between 'Dark - roadway not lighted' (2 crashes) and 'Daylight' (2 crashes), whereas in October 2023, 'Daylight' crashes were more frequent (6 crashes) compared to 'Dark - roadway not lighted' (4 crashes), 'Dark - lighted roadway' (1 crash), and 'Dawn' (1 crash). Road surface condition data is not available for comparison in the current period.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Lighting condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Top Vehicle Makes (6 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Vehicle unit records
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in October 2024 occurred exclusively in the 65 mph speed limit zone, with 4 incidents. This is a shift from October 2023, where crashes were distributed across multiple speed zones: 5 crashes at 65 mph, 4 crashes at 30 mph, 2 crashes at 25 mph, and 1 crash at 35 mph. Fatalities remained at 0 in all speed zones for both periods.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · 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: 2024-10-01 through 2024-10-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-10-01 through 2024-10-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: MERRIMAC, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 4
- Total persons involved: 6
- Total vehicles involved: 6
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). "MERRIMAC, MA Crash Intelligence Report: October 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/merrimac/october-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly
Period: 2024-10-01 – 2024-10-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved