ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · PALMER, MA · JANUARY 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/palmer/january-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
67 CRASHES IN
PALMER, MA
JANUARY 2024
In January 2024, Palmer experienced 67 crashes, a substantial increase compared to the 36 crashes recorded in January 2023, representing an 86.1% rise year-over-year. The most notable shift was the increase in total crashes and associated injuries, which doubled from 8 to 16. Fatalities remained at zero in both periods.
67
▲ 86.1%was 36
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
16
▲ 100.0%was 8
Persons Injured
4
▲ 100.0%was 2
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 · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend indicates a significant increase in crash activity in Palmer, with total crashes rising by 86.1% from 36 in January 2023 to 67 in January 2024. Correspondingly, total injuries also doubled, increasing from 8 to 16 over the same period, while fatalities remained unchanged at 0.
4
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2024
▲ 100.0% vs prior (2)
Hit-and-run crashes increased from 2 incidents in January 2023 to 4 incidents in January 2024. The hit-and-run rate also saw a slight increase, moving from 5.6% in the prior period to 6% in the current period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Motorists Killed
16
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · 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, increasing from 10 crashes in January 2023 to 17 crashes in January 2024. The peak hour for crashes shifted from 2 PM in the prior year to 5 PM in the current year, with both periods recording 7 crashes during their respective peak hours.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes and total fatalities remained at 0 in both January 2023 and January 2024. Total injuries increased from 8 to 16 year-over-year. While the prior period recorded 1 serious injury, the current period did not, and minor injuries increased from 4 to 10 crashes.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor, 'No improper driving,' increased significantly from 8 crashes in January 2023 to 21 crashes in January 2024. 'Driving too fast for conditions' also saw a substantial increase, rising from 3 crashes to 10 crashes. 'Inattention' increased from 5 crashes to 7 crashes, while 'Failed to yield right of way' decreased from 3 crashes to 2 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions increased from 12 in January 2023 to 21 in January 2024, while 'Snow' condition crashes rose from 3 to 11. On road surfaces, crashes on 'Snow' increased sharply from 2 to 25, and 'Dry' surface crashes increased from 15 to 19, contrasting with a decrease in 'Wet' surface crashes from 16 to 13. Daylight crashes increased from 21 to 38, while crashes in 'Dark - lighted roadway' conditions slightly decreased from 10 to 9.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 60 in January 2023 to 108 in January 2024, an 80% rise. Toyota remained a top vehicle make, with its involvement increasing from 6 to 16 vehicles, and Honda also saw an increase from 6 to 10 vehicles. Ford's involvement grew from 3 to 12 vehicles, placing it among the top three makes in the current period.
Top Vehicle Makes (108 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
18 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (99 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in 30 mph speed zones doubled from 10 in January 2023 to 20 in January 2024, and crashes in 65 mph zones also doubled from 6 to 12. Conversely, crashes in 40 mph speed zones decreased from 8 to 6 year-over-year. No fatal crashes were recorded in any speed zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: PALMER, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 67
- Total persons involved: 118
- Total vehicles involved: 108
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: January 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/palmer/january-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: 2024-01-01 – 2024-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved