Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

388 CRASHES IN
READING, MA
2025

All metrics benchmarked against2024

In Reading, total traffic crashes decreased by 17.4%, from 470 in the prior year to 388 in the current year. While overall crashes and injuries declined, the most notable year-over-year shift was in severity, with two fatal crashes occurring in the current period compared to none in the prior period.

388

-17.4%was 470

Total Crash Events

2

Persons Killed

80

-14.9%was 94

Persons Injured

21

-34.4%was 32

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (2) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (2) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 7 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

The overall trend shows a reduction in the frequency of crashes and injuries. Total crashes fell by 82 incidents (17.4%) and total injuries decreased from 94 to 80 (14.9%). However, this trend of decreasing volume is contrasted by an increase in severity, as fatalities rose from zero to two.

21

Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2025

-34.4% vs prior (32)

Hit-and-run incidents decreased in both volume and rate. The number of hit-and-run crashes fell by 34.4%, from 32 to 21, between the prior and current periods. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate, as a percentage of total crashes, dropped from 6.8% to 5.4%.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 00.0%

1

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 5-80.0%

3

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 250.0%

75

Motorists Injured

Prior: 87-13.8%

1

Other Injured

Prior: 0%

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 pattern of crashes shifted between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Friday (100 crashes) in the prior year to Tuesday (62 crashes) in the current year. The peak hour for collisions remained 5 p.m. in both years, though the number of crashes during that hour decreased from 50 to 36.

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

Crash severity worsened year-over-year despite a drop in total incidents. Two fatal crashes (0.5% of all crashes) were recorded in the current period, whereas none occurred in the prior year. The number of serious injury crashes also rose from one to four, and the share of crashes resulting in no injury decreased from 82.8% to 80.2%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal2fatal crashes0.5%
Serious Injury4serious injury crashes1%
300.0%prior 1
Minor Injury37minor injury crashes9.5%
-2.6%prior 38
Possible Injury27possible injury crashes7%
-27.0%prior 37
No Injury311no injury crashes80.2%
-20.1%prior 389

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

The top three contributing factors remained consistent: "Followed too closely," "No improper driving," and "Failed to yield right of way." The leading factor, "Followed too closely," saw its crash count decrease by 10% from 110 to 99. Incidents attributed to "Failed to yield right of way" experienced a significant 44.6% drop in count, from 65 crashes to 36.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Followed too closely99 (25.5%)-10.0%prior 110
No improper driving55 (14.2%)-26.7%prior 75
Failed to yield right of way36 (9.3%)-44.6%prior 65
Inattention30 (7.7%)-31.8%prior 44
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road25 (6.4%)0.0%prior 25
Other improper action12 (3.1%)-53.8%prior 26
Made an improper turn11 (2.8%)0.0%prior 11
Distracted9 (2.3%)-10.0%prior 10
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner8 (2.1%)60.0%prior 5
Driving too fast for conditions6 (1.5%)-64.7%prior 17

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

Crashes in both periods occurred predominantly in clear weather, during daylight, and on dry roads. The proportion of crashes happening under clear weather conditions increased from 50.4% in the prior year to 66.5% in the current year. Similarly, the share of crashes occurring in daylight grew from 73.0% to 78.4%.

Weather

Clear/Clear258 (66.5%)
8.9%prior 237
Clear35 (9.0%)
-65.7%prior 102
Cloudy/Cloudy24 (6.2%)
-17.2%prior 29
Rain/Rain18 (4.6%)
12.5%prior 16
Clear/Cloudy12 (3.1%)
0.0%prior 12
Cloudy8 (2.1%)
-52.9%prior 17
Cloudy/Rain7 (1.8%)
-36.4%prior 11
Cloudy/Clear6 (1.5%)
Rain/Cloudy5 (1.3%)
-44.4%prior 9
Snow/Snow4 (1.0%)
-20.0%prior 5

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

Lighting

Daylight304 (78.4%)
-11.4%prior 343
Dark - lighted roadway51 (13.1%)
-44.0%prior 91
Dusk17 (4.4%)
0.0%prior 17
Dark - roadway not lighted10 (2.6%)
-16.7%prior 12
Dawn6 (1.5%)

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

Road Surface

Dry318 (82.0%)
-18.3%prior 389
Wet55 (14.2%)
0.0%prior 55
Snow8 (2.1%)
-52.9%prior 17
Ice3 (0.8%)
-40.0%prior 5
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel2 (0.5%)
Slush1 (0.3%)
Other1 (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 top three vehicle makes involved in crashes were identical across both periods: Toyota, Honda, and Ford, with their rankings unchanged. Regarding persons involved, the proportion from the 16-20 age group decreased from 12.3% of all persons in the prior year to 9.3% in the current year.

Top Vehicle Makes (795 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA119 (15%)
-12.5%prior 136
2
HONDA98 (12.3%)
-19.7%prior 122
3
FORD78 (9.8%)
-9.3%prior 86
4
CHEVROLET64 (8.1%)
-4.5%prior 67
5
SUBARU46 (5.8%)
9.5%prior 42
6
JEEP43 (5.4%)
-8.5%prior 47
7
NISSAN37 (4.7%)
-30.2%prior 53
8
HYUNDAI34 (4.3%)
3.0%prior 33
9
MAZDA22 (2.8%)
10.0%prior 20
10
VOLKSWAGEN21 (2.6%)
133.3%prior 9

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

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

Sex Distribution (892 persons with recorded sex)

Male523 (58.6%)
-13.7%prior 606
Female368 (41.3%)
-21.2%prior 467
X / Unspecified1 (0.1%)
-50.0%prior 2

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

The 30 mph speed zone was the site of the most crashes in both periods, though the count fell from 154 to 139. A notable change was the appearance of fatal crashes in the current year's data, with one fatality occurring in a 30 mph zone and another in a 40 mph zone. The prior period recorded no fatal crashes in any speed zone.

Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 139 (0.719%) · 40 mph: 1 of 58 (1.724%)

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: READING, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 388
  • Total persons involved: 962
  • Total vehicles involved: 795

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). "READING, 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/reading/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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Reading, MA Crash Report — 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com