Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

295 CRASHES IN
NORTON, MA
2025

All metrics benchmarked against2024

In Norton, total traffic crashes decreased by 16.4% from 353 in 2024 to 295 in 2025. While fatalities remained at zero for both years, a notable positive shift was the reduction in crashes resulting in serious injuries, which fell from 13 to 6. The overall number of injuries also declined from 107 to 94.

295

-16.4%was 353

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

94

-12.1%was 107

Persons Injured

15

-21.1%was 19

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. 5 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Traffic safety data for Norton indicates a positive year-over-year trend, with total crashes falling by 16.4% from 353 to 295. This downward trend extended to injuries, which decreased by 12.1% from 107 to 94. No fatalities were recorded in either period.

15

Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2025

-21.1% vs prior (19)

Hit-and-run incidents showed a downward trend. The absolute number of hit-and-run crashes fell from 19 in the prior year to 15 in the current year. Correspondingly, the hit-and-run rate as a percentage of all crashes decreased slightly from 5.4% to 5.1%.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

1

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 6-83.3%

5

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 366.7%

88

Motorists Injured

Prior: 97-9.3%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained largely consistent, with Tuesday being the peak day for incidents in both years, though the count dropped from 70 to 53. The peak hour for crashes shifted slightly from 3 p.m. in the prior period (34 crashes) to 4 p.m. in the current period (27 crashes). Weekdays continued to see higher crash volumes than weekends in both years.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

No fatal crashes were recorded in either period. The number of crashes involving a serious injury decreased from 13 to 6, with their share of total crashes falling from 3.7% to 2.0%. In contrast, crashes resulting in minor injuries increased in both count, from 43 to 54, and proportion, from 12.2% to 18.3% of all crashes.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury6serious injury crashes2%
-53.8%prior 13
Minor Injury54minor injury crashes18.3%
25.6%prior 43
Possible Injury21possible injury crashes7.1%
-25.0%prior 28
No Injury209no injury crashes70.8%
-19.3%prior 259

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

While the top three contributing factors remained the same, their counts shifted year-over-year. 'Inattention' became the leading factor in the current period with 67 incidents, an increase from 53 in the prior year. Conversely, crashes attributed to 'Failed to yield right of way' decreased from 42 to 23, and incidents with 'No improper driving' fell from 90 to 63.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Inattention67 (22.7%)26.4%prior 53
No improper driving63 (21.4%)-30.0%prior 90
Failed to yield right of way23 (7.8%)-45.2%prior 42
Followed too closely21 (7.1%)-8.7%prior 23
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road21 (7.1%)-16.0%prior 25
Visibility obstructed8 (2.7%)
Other improper action8 (2.7%)14.3%prior 7
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner8 (2.7%)-11.1%prior 9
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings7 (2.4%)-22.2%prior 9
Fatigued/asleep7 (2.4%)-36.4%prior 11

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The distribution of crashes across environmental conditions was stable between the two periods. The majority of incidents in both years occurred during daylight (70.2% current vs. 69.4% prior) and on dry roads (80.3% current vs. 74.2% prior). There was no significant year-over-year change in the proportion of crashes occurring during adverse weather or lighting conditions.

Weather

Clear188 (63.7%)
-20.7%prior 237
Clear/Clear26 (8.8%)
271.4%prior 7
Cloudy19 (6.4%)
-5.0%prior 20
Rain14 (4.7%)
-39.1%prior 23
Clear/Unknown9 (3.1%)
Cloudy/Rain8 (2.7%)
-11.1%prior 9
Clear/Other7 (2.4%)
0.0%prior 7
Clear/Cloudy4 (1.4%)
-50.0%prior 8
Rain/Rain3 (1.0%)
Snow3 (1.0%)
-66.7%prior 9

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight207 (70.2%)
-15.5%prior 245
Dark - lighted roadway42 (14.2%)
-14.3%prior 49
Dark - roadway not lighted27 (9.2%)
-12.9%prior 31
Dawn11 (3.7%)
-15.4%prior 13
Dusk6 (2.0%)
-33.3%prior 9
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (0.7%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry237 (80.3%)
-9.5%prior 262
Wet40 (13.6%)
-28.6%prior 56
Ice11 (3.7%)
-8.3%prior 12
Snow6 (2.0%)
-66.7%prior 18
Slush1 (0.3%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles and demographics of people involved in crashes were consistent year-over-year. Toyota, Honda, and Ford were the three most common vehicle makes in both periods. The 26-34 age group represented the largest share of individuals in both years (18.8% current vs. 17.9% prior), and the proportion of males involved remained steady at approximately 58%.

Top Vehicle Makes (505 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA81 (16%)
-14.7%prior 95
2
HONDA64 (12.7%)
3.2%prior 62
3
FORD48 (9.5%)
-30.4%prior 69
4
NISSAN41 (8.1%)
5.1%prior 39
5
CHEVROLET31 (6.1%)
-32.6%prior 46
6
JEEP27 (5.3%)
-28.9%prior 38
7
HYUNDAI25 (5%)
-3.8%prior 26
8
SUBARU15 (3%)
-40.0%prior 25
9
VOLKSWAGEN14 (2.8%)
-6.7%prior 15
10
LEXUS13 (2.6%)
0.0%prior 13

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

34 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (584 persons with recorded sex)

Male344 (58.9%)
-15.9%prior 409
Female240 (41.1%)
-17.5%prior 291

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crash distribution by speed limit showed a notable decrease in 30 mph zones, falling from 121 incidents in the prior year to 86 in the current year. Crashes in 40 mph zones were unchanged at 92 incidents, while those in 65 mph zones increased slightly from 36 to 40. No fatal crashes were recorded in any speed zone during either period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · 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: 2025-01-01 through 2025-12-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-01-01 through 2025-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: NORTON, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 295
  • Total persons involved: 627
  • Total vehicles involved: 505

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). "NORTON, MA Crash Intelligence Report: 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/norton/2025-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

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Norton, MA Crash Report — 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com