ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEWTON, MA · AUGUST 2023
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/newton/august-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
141 CRASHES IN
NEWTON, MA
AUGUST 2023
Total crashes in NEWTON increased by 24.78%, from 113 in August 2022 to 141 in August 2023. A notable shift was the increase in total fatalities from 0 to 1, and fatal crashes from 0 to 1, year-over-year. Total injuries saw a slight increase from 40 to 41 during the same period.
141
▲ 24.8%was 113
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
41
▲ 2.5%was 40
Persons Injured
16
▲ 14.3%was 14
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. 6 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in NEWTON increased year-over-year, with total crashes rising from 113 in August 2022 to 141 in August 2023, representing a 24.78% increase. Concurrently, total fatalities increased from 0 to 1, and total injuries saw a slight increase from 40 to 41 during the same period.
16
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2023
▲ 14.3% vs prior (14)
The number of hit-and-run crashes increased from 14 in August 2022 to 16 in August 2023. Despite this increase in count, the hit-and-run rate decreased slightly from 12.4% to 11.3% of total crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
0
Motorists Killed
4
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
36
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes remained Tuesday in both periods, with 33 crashes in August 2023 compared to 21 in August 2022. However, the peak hour shifted from 3 PM with 10 crashes in August 2022 to 5 PM with 14 crashes in August 2023, indicating a shift in the highest crash frequency to a later afternoon hour.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes increased from 0 in August 2022 to 1 in August 2023, resulting in a fatal crash rate of 0.71% for the current period. The number of serious injury crashes remained constant at 4 in both periods, while minor injury crashes slightly decreased from 19 to 18. Crashes with no injury increased from 75 to 102 year-over-year.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Inattention increased in count from 23 to 28 crashes (a 21.7% increase), while No improper driving decreased from 28 to 22 crashes (a 21.4% decrease in count). Followed too closely saw a significant increase in count from 12 to 19 crashes (a 58.3% increase). Additionally, Driving too fast for conditions and Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings both increased from 1 crash to 7 crashes each, representing a 600% increase in count for both factors.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in Rain conditions increased from 6 in August 2022 to 18 in August 2023, a 200% increase. Similarly, crashes on Wet road surfaces rose from 7 to 30, a 328.6% increase year-over-year. Crashes in Daylight conditions increased from 92 to 112, while those in Dark - lighted roadway conditions increased from 13 to 20.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 216 to 271 year-over-year. Toyota and Honda remained the top two vehicle makes involved, with Toyota increasing from 34 to 47 and Honda from 31 to 40. The 35-44 age group saw the largest increase in persons involved, rising from 25 to 54, an increase of 116%.
Top Vehicle Makes (271 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
76 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (325 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 25 mph speed zones increased from 56 to 64, with one fatal crash occurring in this zone in August 2023, compared to none in August 2022. Crashes in 55 mph speed zones also increased from 17 to 29 year-over-year. This indicates a general increase in crashes across various speed limit zones, including those with higher posted limits.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 64 (1.563%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · 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: 2023-08-01 through 2023-08-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-08-01 through 2023-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: NEWTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 141
- Total persons involved: 392
- Total vehicles involved: 271
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). "NEWTON, MA Crash Intelligence Report: August 2023." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/newton/august-2023-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: 2023-08-01 – 2023-08-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved