ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEEDHAM, MA · MARCH 2022
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/march-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
27 CRASHES IN
NEEDHAM, MA
MARCH 2022
In March 2022, Needham experienced 27 total crashes, a decrease of 6.9% compared to 29 crashes in March 2021. Despite the reduction in total crashes, the number of total injuries increased by 50%, rising from 6 in the prior period to 9 in the current period.
27
▼ -6.9%was 29
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
9
▲ 50.0%was 6
Persons Injured
0
▼ -100.0%was 1
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 · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Total crashes in Needham decreased by 6.9%, from 29 in March 2021 to 27 in March 2022. However, total injuries rose significantly by 50%, increasing from 6 to 9 over the same period, while fatalities remained at zero in both months.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Motorists Killed
9
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · 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 Friday with 6 crashes in March 2021 to Wednesday with 8 crashes in March 2022. Additionally, the peak hour for crashes moved from 4 p.m. with 4 crashes in March 2021 to 5 p.m. with 5 crashes in March 2022, indicating a slight shift in daily crash patterns.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatalities remained at 0 in both March 2021 and March 2022. Total injuries increased by 50%, from 6 to 9, with the proportion of minor injury crashes rising from 10.3% to 14.8% and possible injury crashes from 10.3% to 11.1%. Consequently, the share of no-injury crashes decreased from 79.3% to 70.4%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The count of crashes attributed to 'Failed to yield right of way' remained stable at 6 in both periods. 'Inattention' decreased by 1 crash, from 6 to 5, and 'No improper driving' decreased by 2 crashes, from 6 to 4. Notably, factors like 'Exceeded authorized speed limit' (1 crash), 'Distracted' (1 crash), 'Driving too fast for conditions' (1 crash), and 'Made an improper turn' (2 crashes) appeared in March 2022, having zero occurrences in March 2021.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions decreased from 26 in March 2021 to 18 in March 2022. Conversely, crashes on wet road surfaces increased from 2 to 3, and crashes on snow (2) and ice (1) surfaces emerged in March 2022, having no occurrences in the prior period. Daylight crashes decreased from 23 to 19, while crashes in dark-lighted roadway conditions increased from 2 to 5.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes remained constant at 51 in both periods, while the total number of persons involved decreased from 60 to 56. Toyota vehicles involved in crashes increased from 10 to 15, and Honda vehicles increased from 5 to 9, while Nissan vehicles decreased from 4 to 2. The 16-20 age group saw a significant decrease from 12 to 4 persons involved in crashes, whereas the 26-34 age group increased from 3 to 10 persons.
Top Vehicle Makes (51 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
4 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (51 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph zones increased from 15 in March 2021 to 20 in March 2022. Conversely, crashes in 55 mph zones decreased from 6 to 3. Crashes in 15 mph, 25 mph, and 40 mph zones, which were present in March 2021, had no recorded occurrences in March 2022.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · 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: 2022-03-01 through 2022-03-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-03-01 through 2022-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: NEEDHAM, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 27
- Total persons involved: 56
- Total vehicles involved: 51
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: March 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/needham/march-2022-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: 2022-03-01 – 2022-03-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved