ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · METHUEN, MA · JANUARY 2026
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/methuen/january-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
122 CRASHES IN
METHUEN, MA
JANUARY 2026
In January 2026, METHUEN recorded 122 crashes, an increase from 113 crashes in January 2025, representing a 7.96% rise year-over-year. Fatalities remained at zero in both periods, while total injuries saw a slight increase from 31 to 32. A notable shift was observed in DUI-related crashes, which decreased significantly from 5 in the prior period to 1 in the current period.
122
▲ 8.0%was 113
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
32
▲ 3.2%was 31
Persons Injured
4
▲ 33.3%was 3
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. 1 crash with unreported severity is not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crashes in METHUEN showed an upward trend year-over-year, increasing by 7.96% from 113 crashes in January 2025 to 122 crashes in January 2026. Despite this increase in total crashes, the number of fatalities remained stable at zero for both periods.
4
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2026
▲ 33.3% vs prior (3)
Hit-and-run crashes increased from 3 in January 2025 to 4 in January 2026. The hit-and-run rate also saw a slight increase, rising from 2.7% of total crashes in the prior period to 3.3% in the current period, indicating an upward trend.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Motorists Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
31
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · 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 Monday with 27 crashes in January 2025 to Thursday with 28 crashes in January 2026. The peak crash hour also changed, moving from 6 PM with 13 crashes in the prior period to 3 PM with 17 crashes in the current period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes remained at zero in both January 2025 and January 2026. Serious injury crashes increased from 0 in the prior period to 2 in the current period. Minor injury crashes saw an increase from 11 (9.7% of total crashes) to 16 (13.1% of total crashes), while possible injury crashes decreased from 14 (12.4% of total crashes) to 6 (4.9% of total crashes).
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
"No improper driving" remained the most cited factor, though its count decreased from 27 in January 2025 to 22 in January 2026. "Failed to yield right of way" crashes increased significantly from 14 to 19, and "Driving too fast for conditions" also rose from 5 to 8. Notably, "Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings" saw a substantial increase in count from 2 to 8 crashes year-over-year. Conversely, "Inattention" decreased from 14 to 8 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes in clear weather conditions increased from 55 in January 2025 to 67 in January 2026, while crashes during snowy conditions also rose from 6 to 15. Similarly, crashes on dry road surfaces increased from 63 to 70, and those on snowy surfaces more than doubled from 11 to 26. Daylight crashes increased from 61 to 70, and crashes in dark-lighted roadway conditions saw a slight increase from 35 to 36.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Honda remained the top vehicle make involved in crashes, increasing from 46 in January 2025 to 52 in January 2026. Toyota moved into the second position with 31 vehicles, up from 25, while Ford decreased from 30 to 20 vehicles. Regarding age demographics, the 0-15 age group saw a notable increase from 10 to 21 persons involved in crashes, and the 26-34 age group increased from 39 to 50. Conversely, the 16-20 age group decreased from 40 to 33, and the 65+ age group decreased from 29 to 26.
Top Vehicle Makes (234 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
18 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (282 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 25 mph speed zone remained stable at 9 for both periods. Crashes in the 30 mph zone decreased from 23 to 21, and those in the 35 mph zone saw a significant reduction from 17 to 6. Conversely, crashes in the 65 mph zone increased notably from 15 in January 2025 to 25 in January 2026. No fatalities were recorded in any speed zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · 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: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: METHUEN, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 122
- Total persons involved: 297
- Total vehicles involved: 234
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 2026." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/methuen/january-2026-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: 2026-01-01 – 2026-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved