ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · PALMER, MA · JANUARY 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/january-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
32 CRASHES IN
PALMER, MA
JANUARY 2025
In January 2025, PALMER experienced 32 total crashes, a significant decrease from the 67 crashes reported in January 2024. This represents a 52.24% reduction in overall crash incidents year-over-year. The most notable shift was a 78.57% decrease in crashes attributed to speeding, falling from 14 to 3.
32
▼ -52.2%was 67
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
10
▼ -37.5%was 16
Persons Injured
1
▼ -75.0%was 4
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. 1 crash with unreported severity is not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend indicates a substantial decrease in crash incidents in PALMER, with total crashes falling from 67 in January 2024 to 32 in January 2025. This represents a year-over-year reduction of 52.24%.
1
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2025
▼ -75.0% vs prior (4)
Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 4 incidents in January 2024 to 1 incident in January 2025. The hit-and-run rate also decreased, falling from 6% of total crashes to 3.1% year-over-year, indicating a downward trend.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Motorists Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
9
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes shifted from Tuesday, with 17 incidents in January 2024, to Thursday, with 9 incidents in January 2025. The peak hour also changed, moving from 5 PM (7 crashes) in January 2024 to 2 PM (6 crashes) in January 2025. Crashes on Sundays saw a significant decrease, dropping from 16 to 2.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
There were no fatalities in either January 2024 or January 2025. Total injuries decreased from 16 to 10 year-over-year. While minor injury crashes decreased in count from 10 to 5, their proportion of total crashes slightly increased from 14.9% to 15.6%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top contributing factor, 'No improper driving,' decreased from 21 crashes to 9 crashes, a 57.1% decrease in count. 'Driving too fast for conditions' saw a significant 90% decrease in count, falling from 10 crashes to 1 crash. Conversely, 'Made an improper turn' increased by 200% in count, from 1 crash to 3 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
There was a notable shift towards crashes occurring under clear weather and dry road conditions. Crashes under clear weather increased proportionally from 31.3% (21 crashes) to 71.9% (23 crashes), while crashes on dry road surfaces increased from 28.4% (19 crashes) to 62.5% (20 crashes). Correspondingly, crashes under snowy road conditions decreased significantly from 25 to 3, and snow-related weather conditions decreased from 21 to 2.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 108 to 50. All age groups experienced a decrease in the count of persons involved, with the 35-44 age group seeing a substantial drop from 22 to 8 persons. The ranking of top vehicle makes shifted, with Toyota, Ford, and Honda all experiencing significant decreases in their counts of involved vehicles, while Chevrolet and Toyota were tied for the highest count in the current period with 6 vehicles each.
Top Vehicle Makes (50 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
4 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (56 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The total number of crashes with recorded speed limits decreased from 64 to 32. Crashes in the 30 mph zone decreased from 20 to 7, and in the 65 mph zone from 12 to 4. The 40 mph speed zone was the only category to maintain a consistent crash count of 6 in both periods. There were no fatal crashes in any speed zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · 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: 2025-01-01 through 2025-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-01-01 through 2025-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: PALMER, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 32
- Total persons involved: 60
- Total vehicles involved: 50
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 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/palmer/january-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: 2025-01-01 – 2025-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved