ThatCarHitMe.com
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YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · METHUEN, MA · JANUARY 2023
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
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GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/massachusetts/methuen/january-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
114 CRASHES IN
METHUEN, MA
JANUARY 2023
In January 2023, METHUEN experienced 114 total crashes, an increase from the 95 crashes recorded in January 2022. This represents a 20% rise in total crashes year-over-year. The most significant shift was a 250% increase in hit-and-run crashes, which rose from 2 incidents in January 2022 to 7 in January 2023.
114
▲ 20.0%was 95
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
29
▲ 3.6%was 28
Persons Injured
7
▲ 250.0%was 2
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.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in METHUEN showed an upward trend year-over-year, with total crashes increasing by 20% from 95 in January 2022 to 114 in January 2023. Total injuries also saw a slight rise, increasing by 3.6% from 28 to 29 over the same period. Fatalities remained at zero for both January 2022 and January 2023.
7
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2023
▲ 250.0% vs prior (2)
Hit-and-run crashes saw a substantial increase year-over-year, rising from 2 incidents in January 2022 to 7 incidents in January 2023. This represents a 250% increase in the number of hit-and-run crashes. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate also climbed from 2.1% of total crashes in January 2022 to 6.1% in January 2023, indicating an upward trend.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Motorists Killed
29
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal distribution of crashes showed notable shifts between the two periods. The peak day for crashes changed from Saturday and Tuesday (16 crashes each) in January 2022 to Friday and Monday (22 crashes each) in January 2023. Additionally, the peak hour for crashes dramatically shifted from 5 PM with 11 crashes in January 2022 to 12 AM with 65 crashes in January 2023.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes remained at 0 in both January 2022 and January 2023, resulting in a consistent fatal crash rate of 0%. While minor injury crashes remained stable at 7 incidents, serious injury crashes decreased by 33.3% from 3 in January 2022 to 2 in January 2023. Conversely, possible injury crashes increased by 44.4%, rising from 9 incidents in January 2022 to 13 in January 2023.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'Followed too closely' crashes increased by 6 incidents, rising from 11 in January 2022 to 17 in January 2023, and moved from third to second in ranking. 'Driving too fast for conditions' crashes also increased by 4 incidents, from 11 to 15. In contrast, crashes attributed to 'Distracted' driving saw a significant decrease of 6 incidents, falling from 7 in January 2022 to 1 in January 2023.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring on 'Wet' road surfaces saw a substantial increase, rising from 15 incidents in January 2022 to 43 in January 2023. Incidents during 'Dark - lighted roadway' conditions also increased significantly, from 21 to 41. Meanwhile, crashes under 'Clear/Clear' weather conditions decreased from 43 to 32 incidents year-over-year.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of persons involved in crashes increased from 231 in January 2022 to 252 in January 2023. Notable shifts in age distribution include a 91.7% increase in persons aged 35-44, rising from 24 to 46, and a 45.5% decrease in persons aged 21-25, falling from 44 to 29. The top three vehicle makes involved, Honda, Toyota, and Ford, maintained their leading positions in both periods, with Honda and Toyota showing slight increases in involvement.
Top Vehicle Makes (206 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
10 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (233 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes occurring in 30 mph speed zones increased from 18 in January 2022 to 29 in January 2023, while crashes in 35 mph zones decreased from 27 to 21. Crashes in 65 mph zones saw a slight increase from 11 to 13. Fatalities remained at zero across all reported speed zones in both periods.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · 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: 2023-01-01 through 2023-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-01-01 through 2023-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: METHUEN, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 114
- Total persons involved: 252
- Total vehicles involved: 206
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). "METHUEN, MA Crash Intelligence Report: January 2023." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/methuen/january-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly
Period: 2023-01-01 – 2023-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved