ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEEDHAM, MA · APRIL 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/april-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
47 CRASHES IN
NEEDHAM, MA
APRIL 2024
The city of Needham experienced a notable increase in overall crash incidents in April 2024 compared to April 2023, with total crashes rising from 36 to 47, marking a 30.56% increase. While total fatalities remained stable at one in both periods, total injuries saw a significant 400% surge, increasing from 2 to 10. This substantial rise in injuries represents the most significant year-over-year shift in crash outcomes.
47
▲ 30.6%was 36
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
10
▲ 400.0%was 2
Persons Injured
6
▲ 50.0%was 4
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. 1 crash with unreported severity is not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash data for Needham indicates an upward trend year-over-year, with total crashes increasing by 30.56% from 36 in April 2023 to 47 in April 2024. Total injuries rose dramatically by 400%, from 2 to 10, suggesting a significant increase in the severity of crash outcomes. Total fatalities remained consistent at one in both periods.
6
Hit-and-Run Crashes — April 2024
▲ 50.0% vs prior (4)
Hit-and-run incidents increased in April 2024 compared to April 2023, rising from 4 crashes to 6 crashes. Concurrently, the hit-and-run rate also saw an increase, moving from 11.1% of total crashes in the prior period to 12.8% in the current period. This indicates an upward trend in both the count and proportion of hit-and-run crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
7
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · 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 between the two periods. In April 2023, Friday was the peak day for crashes with 8 incidents, while in April 2024, Thursday became the peak day with 10 crashes. Similarly, the peak crash hour moved from 2 PM with 7 crashes in April 2023 to 11 AM with 6 crashes in April 2024, indicating a change in the busiest times for incidents.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The distribution of crash severity changed year-over-year, with total injuries increasing substantially from 2 in April 2023 to 10 in April 2024. While fatal crashes remained at 1 in both periods, the fatal crash rate slightly decreased from 2.78% to 2.13% due to the overall increase in total crashes. Minor injury crashes also increased significantly in count, from 2 (5.6% share) to 7 (14.9% share).
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Contributing factors saw shifts in both counts and rankings. 'No improper driving' crashes increased from 5 to 13 (a 160% increase in count), becoming the most frequent factor in April 2024, up from second place. 'Followed too closely' incidents rose from 1 to 8 (a 700% increase in count), showing a substantial increase in this type of crash. Conversely, 'Failed to yield right of way' crashes decreased from 9 to 6 (a 33.33% decrease in count), dropping from the top factor in April 2023.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
While clear weather remained the dominant condition for crashes in both periods, crashes occurring in cloudy and rainy conditions increased in count. Crashes on wet road surfaces saw a significant rise from 2 in April 2023 to 12 in April 2024, despite crashes on dry surfaces remaining stable at 34. Daylight conditions continued to account for the majority of crashes, increasing from 30 to 40 incidents.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 62 in April 2023 to 89 in April 2024, a 43.5% rise. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved, increasing from 12 to 14, while Honda involvement nearly doubled from 6 to 12. Age group representation shifted, with notable increases in crash involvement for persons aged 21-25 (from 6 to 15), 55-64 (from 7 to 12), and 65+ (from 8 to 17).
Top Vehicle Makes (89 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Vehicle unit records
13 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (92 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph speed zones increased from 23 to 26 year-over-year. More significantly, crashes in 55 mph speed zones doubled from 7 in April 2023 to 14 in April 2024, with one fatal crash occurring in a 55 mph zone in the current period compared to none in the prior period. The single fatal crash in April 2023 occurred in a 30 mph zone, indicating a shift in the speed zone associated with fatalities.
Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 14 (7.143%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · 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: 2024-04-01 through 2024-04-30
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-04-01 through 2024-04-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: NEEDHAM, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 47
- Total persons involved: 106
- Total vehicles involved: 89
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: April 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/needham/april-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: 2024-04-01 – 2024-04-30
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved