ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · NEWTON, MA · MARCH 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/march-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
126 CRASHES IN
NEWTON, MA
MARCH 2024
Total crashes in Newton increased by 8.6% from 116 in March 2023 to 126 in March 2024. A notable shift was the 80% decrease in DUI-related crashes, falling from 5 to 1.
126
▲ 8.6%was 116
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
23
▲ 9.5%was 21
Persons Injured
16
▼ -5.9%was 17
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. 3 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Newton increased by 8.6% year-over-year, rising from 116 crashes in March 2023 to 126 crashes in March 2024. This indicates a slight upward trend in total crash volume.
16
Hit-and-Run Crashes — March 2024
▼ -5.9% vs prior (17)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 17 in March 2023 to 16 in March 2024. The hit-and-run rate also decreased from 14.7% of total crashes in the prior period to 12.7% in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Motorists Killed
3
Pedestrians Injured
20
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · 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 Wednesday, with 21 crashes in March 2023, to Friday, with 24 crashes in March 2024. The peak hour also shifted from 5 PM, which recorded 19 crashes in the prior period, to 6 PM, with 18 crashes in the current period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Both periods recorded no fatalities or fatal crashes. Total injuries increased from 21 in March 2023 to 23 in March 2024. Serious injury crashes remained constant at 1 in both periods, while minor injury crashes increased from 8 (6.9% of total) to 19 (15.1% of total), and possible injury crashes decreased from 6 (5.2% of total) to 2 (1.6% of total).
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Inattention became the leading contributing factor, increasing from 19 crashes in March 2023 to 27 crashes in March 2024, a 42.1% increase in count. Conversely, crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions' decreased by 40%, from 10 crashes to 6 crashes. 'Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road' crashes increased by 200%, rising from 3 to 9 incidents.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions increased from 66 to 74, while 'Rain' conditions saw an increase from 11 crashes to 21 crashes. The number of crashes in 'Daylight' conditions decreased from 94 to 80, whereas crashes in 'Dark - lighted roadway' conditions more than doubled, rising from 14 to 29. Crashes on 'Wet' road surfaces increased from 25 to 37.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased slightly from 215 in March 2023 to 220 in March 2024. Toyota remained the most common vehicle make involved, increasing from 40 to 42 vehicles, while Honda decreased from 35 to 30. Chevrolet saw an increase from 9 to 14 vehicles involved, moving up in ranking.
Top Vehicle Makes (220 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
23 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (265 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 25 mph zones increased from 34 in March 2023 to 58 in March 2024. Crashes in 30 mph zones decreased from 25 to 17. The number of crashes in 55 mph zones remained stable at 24 in both periods, and no fatalities were recorded in any speed zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31 · 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: 2024-03-01 through 2024-03-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-03-01 through 2024-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: NEWTON, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 126
- Total persons involved: 292
- Total vehicles involved: 220
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: March 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2024-03-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/newton/march-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: 2024-03-01 – 2024-03-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved