Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

68 CRASHES IN
SAUGUS, MA
DECEMBER 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2024

Total crashes in December 2025 were 68, a decrease from 77 crashes in December 2024, representing an 11.7% reduction year-over-year. Despite the overall decrease, the current period saw one serious injury crash, whereas none were reported in the prior year. This marks a notable shift in injury severity.

68

-11.7%was 77

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

28

Persons Injured

8

-27.3%was 11

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.

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

Trend Summary

Overall, crash activity in December 2025 decreased compared to December 2024, with total crashes falling from 77 to 68, a reduction of 11.7%. The number of injuries remained stable at 28 in both periods, and no fatalities were recorded in either year. This indicates a general downward trend in crash frequency but a consistent injury count.

8

Hit-and-Run Crashes — December 2025

-27.3% vs prior (11)

Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 11 incidents in December 2024 to 8 incidents in December 2025. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate also saw a reduction, moving from 14.3% in the prior period to 11.8% in the current period. This indicates a positive trend in hit-and-run incidents.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

28

Motorists Injured

Prior: 267.7%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-12-01 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 shifted year-over-year. In December 2025, the peak day for crashes was Tuesday with 15 incidents, a change from Friday, which had 16 crashes in December 2024. The peak hour for crashes also shifted from 7 PM (9 crashes) in the prior year to 6 PM (7 crashes) in the current period.

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

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

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatalities remained at zero in both December 2025 and December 2024. However, the current period recorded one serious injury crash, which was not present in the prior period's data. Minor injury crashes decreased from 16 to 12, while possible injury crashes slightly increased from 7 to 8.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Serious Injury1serious injury crashes1.5%
Minor Injury12minor injury crashes17.6%
-25.0%prior 16
Possible Injury8possible injury crashes11.8%
14.3%prior 7
No Injury47no injury crashes69.1%
-13.0%prior 54

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

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

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

Top Contributing Factors

The most frequent contributing factor, "No improper driving," decreased by 8 crashes, from 33 in December 2024 to 25 in December 2025. Conversely, crashes attributed to "Inattention" saw a substantial increase of 5 incidents, rising from 3 to 8 crashes. "Followed too closely" crashes decreased by 3, from 10 to 7. "Failed to yield right of way" was a contributing factor in 3 crashes in the current period, while it was not listed as a top factor in the prior period.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving25 (36.8%)-24.2%prior 33
Inattention8 (11.8%)
Followed too closely7 (10.3%)-30.0%prior 10
Distracted3 (4.4%)
Failed to yield right of way3 (4.4%)
Fatigued/asleep2 (2.9%)
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road2 (2.9%)
Exceeded authorized speed limit2 (2.9%)
Other improper action2 (2.9%)
Driving too fast for conditions2 (2.9%)

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

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in dry road conditions increased their share, from 48 incidents (62.3% of total crashes) in December 2024 to 54 incidents (79.4% of total crashes) in December 2025. Conversely, crashes on wet roads decreased from 17 to 6, and snow-related crashes decreased from 11 to 4. The number of crashes in clear weather conditions slightly decreased from 48 to 45.

Weather

Clear45 (66.2%)
-6.3%prior 48
Clear/Clear7 (10.3%)
Cloudy4 (5.9%)
Clear/Cloudy2 (2.9%)
Snow2 (2.9%)
-71.4%prior 7
Rain2 (2.9%)
-80.0%prior 10
Cloudy/Snow1 (1.5%)
Rain/Rain1 (1.5%)
Clear/Severe crosswinds1 (1.5%)
Snow/Rain1 (1.5%)

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

Lighting

Dark - lighted roadway36 (52.9%)
-5.3%prior 38
Daylight26 (38.2%)
-16.1%prior 31
Dusk4 (5.9%)
Dark - roadway not lighted2 (2.9%)

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

Road Surface

Dry54 (79.4%)
12.5%prior 48
Wet6 (8.8%)
-64.7%prior 17
Snow4 (5.9%)
-63.6%prior 11
Ice3 (4.4%)
Slush1 (1.5%)

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

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 151 in December 2024 to 128 in December 2025. Toyota remained the most common vehicle make involved, with 26 incidents in the current period, a slight decrease from 28 in the prior period. The number of persons involved in crashes aged 0-15 significantly decreased from 8 to 1.

Top Vehicle Makes (128 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA26 (20.3%)
-7.1%prior 28
2
HONDA22 (17.2%)
4.8%prior 21
3
FORD15 (11.7%)
7.1%prior 14
4
NISSAN10 (7.8%)
66.7%prior 6
5
MAZDA7 (5.5%)
6
SUBARU6 (4.7%)
0.0%prior 6
7
KIA4 (3.1%)
8
ACURA3 (2.3%)
9
CHEVROLET3 (2.3%)
-50.0%prior 6
10
MERCEDES-BENZ3 (2.3%)

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

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

Sex Distribution (123 persons with recorded sex)

Male77 (62.6%)
-30.0%prior 110
Female46 (37.4%)
-14.8%prior 54

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

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes occurring in 30 MPH speed zones remained constant at 27 incidents in both periods. Crashes in 50 MPH zones decreased from 25 in December 2024 to 20 in December 2025. Notably, 35 MPH speed zones, which had 6 crashes in the prior period, reported no crashes in the current period.

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

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-12-01 through 2025-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: SAUGUS, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 68
  • Total persons involved: 142
  • Total vehicles involved: 128

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

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Saugus, MA Crash Report — December 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com