ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · PALMER, MA · APRIL 2025
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/palmer/april-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
31 CRASHES IN
PALMER, MA
APRIL 2025
In April 2025, PALMER, MA experienced 31 total crashes, a 3.1% decrease compared to the 32 crashes in April 2024. Despite the overall reduction in crashes, fatalities increased from 0 to 1, marking a significant and concerning shift year-over-year. Total injuries also decreased by 27.3%, from 11 to 8.
31
▼ -3.1%was 32
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
8
▼ -27.3%was 11
Persons Injured
1
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.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend indicates a slight decrease in total crashes, with 31 crashes in April 2025 compared to 32 in April 2024, representing a 3.1% reduction. However, a notable shift occurred in crash outcomes, as fatalities increased from 0 to 1, while total injuries decreased from 11 to 8, a 27.3% reduction.
1
Hit-and-Run Crashes — April 2025
▼ 0.0% vs prior (1)
The number of hit-and-run crashes remained constant at 1 in both April 2024 and April 2025. However, the hit-and-run rate slightly increased from 3.1% of total crashes in the prior period to 3.2% in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Motorists Killed
8
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · 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 Thursday in April 2024 (13 crashes) to Saturday in April 2025 (9 crashes). The peak hour also changed, moving from 3 PM (5 crashes) in the prior period to 2 PM (4 crashes) in the current period. This indicates a shift in when crashes are most frequently occurring within the week and day.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The most significant change in crash severity was the increase in fatal crashes from 0 in April 2024 to 1 in April 2025, resulting in a fatal crash rate of 3.2% in the current period. Serious injury crashes increased from 1 (3.1% of crashes) to 2 (6.5% of crashes). Conversely, minor injury crashes decreased substantially from 8 (25% of crashes) to 3 (9.7% of crashes), and possible injury crashes also decreased from 2 (6.3% of crashes) to 1 (3.2% of crashes).
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor, "No improper driving," decreased by 4 crashes, from 9 in April 2024 to 5 in April 2025. "Followed too closely" increased by 2 crashes, from 3 to 5, while "Driving too fast for conditions" and "Failed to yield right of way" both doubled, increasing from 2 crashes to 4 crashes each. "Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road" saw a reduction from 5 crashes to 4 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Clear weather conditions remained the most dominant factor, accounting for 17 crashes in both periods. Crashes occurring in rain conditions increased from 4 in April 2024 to 6 in April 2025, while those in sleet/snow conditions decreased from 5 to 3. On road surfaces, dry conditions remained constant with 19 crashes in both periods, but wet road crashes increased from 5 to 8, and ice road crashes decreased from 6 to 3.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased slightly from 51 in April 2024 to 54 in April 2025. There was a notable shift in the age distribution of persons involved, with the 16-20 age group increasing from 1 person to 6 persons, and the 26-34 age group increasing from 9 to 13 persons, while the 55-64 age group decreased from 14 to 7 persons. Among vehicle makes, Toyota became the top make involved, increasing from 6 to 9 vehicles, surpassing Honda which decreased from 7 to 4 vehicles.
Top Vehicle Makes (54 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Vehicle unit records
5 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (57 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 65 mph speed zone significantly increased from 7 in April 2024 to 13 in April 2025, and this zone recorded 1 fatal crash in the current period compared to 0 previously. Crashes in the 35 mph zone also increased from 3 to 7. Conversely, crashes in the 25 mph zone decreased from 4 to 2, and the 30 mph zone saw a slight reduction from 6 to 5 crashes.
Fatal crashes by zone: 65 mph: 1 of 13 (7.692%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · 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: 2025-04-01 through 2025-04-30
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-04-01 through 2025-04-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: PALMER, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 31
- Total persons involved: 62
- Total vehicles involved: 54
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). "PALMER, MA Crash Intelligence Report: April 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/palmer/april-2025-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: 2025-04-01 – 2025-04-30
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved