ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEEDHAM, MA · AUGUST 2025
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/august-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
36 CRASHES IN
NEEDHAM, MA
AUGUST 2025
Total crashes in Needham increased slightly from 35 in August 2024 to 36 in August 2025, representing a 2.9% rise. However, the number of total injuries saw a significant increase of 175%, rising from 4 in August 2024 to 11 in August 2025. This notable shift in injury count is the most significant year-over-year change.
36
▲ 2.9%was 35
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
11
▲ 175.0%was 4
Persons Injured
3
▲ 50.0%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 · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend indicates a slight increase in total crashes year-over-year, rising by 2.9% from 35 crashes in August 2024 to 36 crashes in August 2025. Concurrently, total injuries experienced a substantial upward trend, increasing from 4 to 11, a 175% rise. Despite the marginal increase in crash count, the severity of outcomes, as indicated by injuries, worsened considerably.
3
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2025
▲ 50.0% vs prior (2)
Hit-and-run crashes increased by 1, from 2 incidents in August 2024 to 3 incidents in August 2025. This resulted in the hit-and-run rate rising from 5.7% of total crashes in August 2024 to 8.3% in August 2025. This represents an increase of 2.6 percentage points in the hit-and-run crash rate.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Motorists Killed
11
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns for crashes show some shifts year-over-year. In August 2024, the peak day for crashes was Friday with 7 incidents, while in August 2025, Tuesday became the peak day with 8 crashes. The peak hour remained consistent at 4 PM for both periods, with 7 crashes reported during that hour in both August 2024 and August 2025.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
There were no fatal crashes in either August 2024 or August 2025. However, total injuries increased by 175%, from 4 in August 2024 to 11 in August 2025. Specifically, serious injuries (Severity A) increased from 0 to 1, and minor injuries (Severity B) increased from 2 to 7, while possible injuries (Severity C) were reported in August 2024 (2) but not in August 2025.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Among contributing factors, 'Inattention' decreased by 1 crash, from 9 in August 2024 to 8 in August 2025. 'No improper driving' also decreased by 2 crashes, from 9 to 7. Conversely, 'Failed to yield right of way' increased from 2 crashes in August 2024 to 4 crashes in August 2025, and 'Followed too closely' rose from 2 crashes to 3 crashes. Notably, 'Fatigued/asleep' appeared as a factor in 3 crashes in August 2025 but was not listed among the top factors in August 2024.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions remained constant at 30 in both periods, although the total number of rain-related crashes decreased from 3 in August 2024 to 1 in August 2025. Crashes on dry road surfaces slightly decreased from 31 in August 2024 to 33 in August 2025, while crashes on wet surfaces decreased from 4 to 3. There was a slight increase in crashes occurring in dark or dusk lighting conditions, rising from 5 in August 2024 to 6 in August 2025.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 64 in August 2024 to 72 in August 2025, an increase of 8 vehicles. In terms of age distribution, the 16-20 age group saw an increase from 6 persons in August 2024 to 13 in August 2025, while the 45-54 age group decreased from 12 to 6. The total number of male persons involved decreased from 38 to 35, and female persons involved decreased from 34 to 26.
Top Vehicle Makes (72 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
13 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (61 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph zones decreased from 21 in August 2024 to 18 in August 2025. Conversely, crashes in 55 mph zones increased from 7 in August 2024 to 12 in August 2025. There were no fatal crashes reported in any speed zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · 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: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: NEEDHAM, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 36
- Total persons involved: 76
- Total vehicles involved: 72
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: August 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/needham/august-2025-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: 2025-08-01 – 2025-08-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved