ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEEDHAM, MA · 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/needham/2024-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
535 CRASHES IN
NEEDHAM, MA
2024
In 2024, Needham recorded 535 total crashes, a 6.4% increase from the 503 crashes documented in 2023. While total fatalities decreased from two to one year-over-year, the number of people injured rose by 20.4%, from 103 to 124. A notable year-over-year shift was observed in bicycle-involved collisions, which doubled in number from 6 in 2023 to 12 in 2024.
535
▲ 6.4%was 503
Total Crash Events
1
▼ -50.0%was 2
Persons Killed
124
▲ 20.4%was 103
Persons Injured
54
▲ 20.0%was 45
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 17 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, traffic collisions in Needham trended upward year-over-year. The total number of crashes increased by 6.4%, from 503 in 2023 to 535 in 2024. This was accompanied by a 20.4% rise in total injuries, which grew from 103 to 124, even as the number of fatalities fell from two to one.
54
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2024
▲ 20.0% vs prior (45)
The number of hit-and-run incidents increased from 45 in 2023 to 54 in 2024, representing a 20% year-over-year rise in count. This increase also resulted in a higher hit-and-run rate, which grew from 8.9% of all crashes in 2023 to 10.1% in 2024. The data indicates an upward trend in both the absolute count and the proportion of crashes where a driver left the scene.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
6
Pedestrians Injured
11
Cyclists Injured
105
Motorists Injured
2
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes in Needham remained broadly consistent, with Wednesday being the peak day for collisions in both 2024 (100 crashes) and 2023 (94 crashes). However, the peak hour for crashes shifted later in the afternoon, moving from 2 p.m. in 2023 (46 crashes) to 4 p.m. in 2024 (56 crashes). The general pattern of crashes increasing during morning and afternoon commute times persisted across both periods.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The number of fatal crashes in Needham decreased from two in 2023 to one in 2024, with the fatal crash rate dropping from 0.4% to 0.2% of all crashes. Conversely, the count of serious injury crashes doubled from four to eight, and their share of all crashes rose from 0.8% to 1.5%. Crashes involving minor or possible injuries also increased in both count and their respective proportions, while the share of non-injury crashes declined from 80.5% in 2023 to 78.5% in 2024.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top three contributing factors cited in crashes remained consistent between 2023 and 2024, though their ranking changed. 'No improper driving' became the most cited factor in 2024 with 105 instances, a 26.5% increase in count from 83 in the prior year. 'Failed to yield right of way' dropped to the second position with 88 crashes, a slight decrease from 89. Citations for 'Inattention' increased by 9.4% in count from 64 to 70 incidents.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The majority of crashes in both years occurred in clear weather and daylight conditions on dry roads, with proportions remaining stable. In 2024, 76.4% of crashes were in clear weather, compared to 74.6% in 2023. Crashes in daylight accounted for 76.1% of the total, down slightly from 77.3% the previous year. A notable shift was observed in road surface conditions, where crashes on icy roads increased from one incident in 2023 to 10 in 2024.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The composition of vehicles involved in crashes saw little change year-over-year, as Toyota, Honda, and Ford remained the top three most frequently involved makes in both periods. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes also remained relatively stable. However, the proportion of individuals in the 21-25 age group increased from 8.8% of all persons in 2023 to 9.9% in 2024, while the share of those in the 16-20 age group decreased from 10.6% to 8.5%.
Top Vehicle Makes (996 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
136 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (1,039 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes remained most prevalent in 30 mph zones, accounting for 309 collisions (57.8% of reported totals) in 2024, compared to 303 (60.2%) in 2023. The proportion of crashes in 55 mph zones was stable at around 19% for both years, while crashes in 25 mph zones increased from 22 to 35. The single fatality in 2024 occurred in a 55 mph zone; in 2023, one fatality occurred in a 30 mph zone and another in a 55 mph zone.
Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 101 (0.99%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31 (366 days)
- Geographic scope: NEEDHAM, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 535
- Total persons involved: 1,183
- Total vehicles involved: 996
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). "NEEDHAM, MA Crash Intelligence Report: 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/needham/2024-annual-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: 2024-01-01 – 2024-12-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved