ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEWTON, MA · AUGUST 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/newton/august-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
127 CRASHES IN
NEWTON, MA
AUGUST 2024
Total crashes in NEWTON, MA decreased by 14, from 141 in August 2023 to 127 in August 2024, representing a 9.93% reduction. The most notable shift was the absence of traffic fatalities in August 2024, compared to one fatality in August 2023.
127
▼ -9.9%was 141
Total Crash Events
0
▼ -100.0%was 1
Persons Killed
39
▼ -4.9%was 41
Persons Injured
17
▲ 6.3%was 16
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. 10 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash activity in NEWTON, MA shows a downward trend year-over-year, with total crashes decreasing by 14. This represents a nearly 10% reduction in crashes compared to the prior August. Fatalities also decreased from one to zero in the current period.
17
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2024
▲ 6.3% vs prior (16)
The number of hit-and-run crashes increased from 16 in the prior period to 17 in the current period. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate rose from 11.3% to 13.4% year-over-year, indicating an upward trend in the proportion of crashes involving a hit-and-run.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
0
Motorists Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
3
Cyclists Injured
35
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes shifted from Tuesday with 33 crashes in the prior period to Thursday with 27 crashes in the current period. The peak hour for crashes also shifted from 5 p.m. with 14 crashes in the prior period to 4 p.m. with 16 crashes in the current period. Crashes on Tuesday decreased significantly from 33 to 14, while crashes on Monday increased from 11 to 22.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The most significant change in crash severity is the absence of any fatalities in the current period, compared to one fatality in the prior period. The total number of injured persons slightly decreased from 41 to 39. The prior period recorded 4 serious injury crashes, which were not present in the current period, while minor injury crashes increased from 18 to 19.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Crashes attributed to 'Inattention' increased by 5 (17.9%) from 28 to 33, maintaining its position as the leading contributing factor. Crashes due to 'Followed too closely' decreased by 6 (31.6%) from 19 to 13. 'Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings' and 'Driving too fast for conditions' both saw a decrease of 3 crashes, from 7 to 4 each.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The number of crashes occurring in rainy weather conditions decreased significantly from 18 to 8, a 55.6% reduction. Correspondingly, crashes on wet road surfaces decreased from 30 to 16, a 46.7% reduction. Crashes occurring in daylight conditions decreased from 112 to 105.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 271 to 237. Toyota, Honda, and Ford remained the top three vehicle makes involved, though their counts decreased by 6, 12, and 10 respectively. The 21-25 age group saw the largest decrease in persons involved, dropping from 47 to 28, and overall female involvement decreased from 146 to 89.
Top Vehicle Makes (237 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
33 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (246 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The 25 mph speed zone continued to account for the highest number of crashes, decreasing slightly from 64 to 59. The 55 mph zone also experienced a decrease in crashes from 29 to 23. Notably, the fatal crash recorded in the prior period occurred in a 25 mph zone, while no fatal crashes were reported in any speed zone during the current period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · 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: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: NEWTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 127
- Total persons involved: 283
- Total vehicles involved: 237
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 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/newton/august-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: 2024-08-01 – 2024-08-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved