ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEW SALEM, MA · 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/new-salem/2022-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
14 CRASHES IN
NEW SALEM, MA
2022
In 2022, New Salem recorded 14 total vehicle crashes, a 26.3% decrease from the 19 crashes reported in 2021. While total injuries increased slightly from 7 to 8, there were no fatalities in either period. A notable shift occurred in contributing factors, with crashes attributed to following too closely decreasing from 4 in the prior year to 1 in the current year.
14
▼ -26.3%was 19
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
8
▲ 14.3%was 7
Persons Injured
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.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, traffic crashes in New Salem saw a downward trend in 2022, decreasing by 26.3% from 19 incidents in 2021 to 14. Despite the drop in total crashes, the number of people injured rose slightly from 7 to 8. There were no traffic fatalities recorded in either year.
1
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2022
▼ 0.0% vs prior (1)
The number of hit-and-run crashes remained constant, with one incident reported in both 2021 and 2022. However, because the total number of crashes decreased in 2022, the hit-and-run rate increased from 5.3% of all crashes in the prior year to 7.1% in the current year.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Motorists Killed
8
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes showed a notable shift in the peak time of day. While Sunday remained the most common day for crashes in both 2021 (6 crashes) and 2022 (5 crashes), the peak hour for incidents moved significantly later, from 5 p.m. in the prior year to 11 p.m. in the current year. Crashes became more concentrated in the late evening hours in 2022, with 3 incidents occurring at 11 p.m.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The crash severity profile remained relatively stable year-over-year, with no fatal crashes recorded in either 2021 or 2022. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injuries was similar, accounting for 73.7% in 2021 and 71.4% in 2022. While the number of serious injury crashes held steady at two, the total number of people injured increased slightly from 7 to 8.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors for crashes shifted between the two periods. While 'No improper driving' was the most cited factor in both years, its count decreased from 6 in 2021 to 3 in 2022. Crashes attributed to 'Followed too closely' saw a significant drop, falling from 4 incidents to just 1. Conversely, 'Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road' emerged as a key factor in 2022 with 2 incidents.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
A significant shift occurred in lighting conditions for crashes year-over-year. In 2022, crashes in dark, unlighted conditions became more prevalent, accounting for 9 of the 14 total incidents (64.3%), compared to 8 of 19 (42.1%) in 2021. In contrast, weather and road surface conditions remained broadly similar, with the majority of crashes in both periods occurring in clear weather on dry roads.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Top Vehicle Makes (20 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
1 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (25 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The distribution of crashes across different speed zones changed between the two periods. In 2021, the most crashes (8) occurred in 45 mph zones. In 2022, the location of crashes shifted to higher speed zones, with 50 mph zones accounting for the highest number of incidents (7). There were no fatal crashes recorded in any speed zone during either year.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · 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: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: NEW SALEM, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 14
- Total persons involved: 26
- Total vehicles involved: 20
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). "NEW SALEM, MA Crash Intelligence Report: 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/new-salem/2022-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: 2022-01-01 – 2022-12-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved