Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

51 CRASHES IN
SAUGUS, MA
MARCH 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2024

Total crashes in SAUGUS, MA increased by 24.4% year-over-year, rising from 41 crashes in March 2024 to 51 crashes in March 2025. This increase in overall crash volume represents the most notable shift in traffic safety during this period. Despite the rise in total incidents, fatalities remained at zero for both periods.

51

24.4%was 41

Total Crash Events

0

Persons Killed

16

-15.8%was 19

Persons Injured

7

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 · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crashes in SAUGUS, MA are trending upwards, with a 24.4% increase in total crashes from 41 in March 2024 to 51 in March 2025. This represents an increase of 10 crashes year-over-year. Fatalities remained at 0 for both periods.

7

Hit-and-Run Crashes — March 2025

75.0% vs prior (4)

Hit-and-run crashes increased from 4 in March 2024 to 7 in March 2025. The hit-and-run rate also rose from 9.8% of total crashes in the prior period to 13.7% in the current period, indicating an upward trend.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

16

Motorists Injured

Prior: 18-11.1%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · 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 Sunday with 8 crashes in March 2024 to Monday with 10 crashes in March 2025. The peak crash hour also changed, moving from 6 PM with 4 crashes in the prior period to 4 PM with 5 crashes in the current period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Both March 2024 and March 2025 reported 0 fatalities and 0 fatal crashes. Total injuries decreased from 19 in March 2024 to 16 in March 2025, despite an increase in total crashes. Notably, March 2024 had 3 serious injury crashes, while March 2025 reported none.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Minor Injury10minor injury crashes19.6%
25.0%prior 8
Possible Injury1possible injury crashes2%
-75.0%prior 4
No Injury39no injury crashes76.5%
62.5%prior 24

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Crashes attributed to "No improper driving" increased from 12 in March 2024 to 22 in March 2025, an 83.3% increase in count, with its share rising from 29.3% to 43.1%. "Followed too closely" crashes doubled from 4 to 8, increasing its share from 9.8% to 15.7%. "Inattention" crashes remained stable at 4 for both periods, though its share decreased from 9.8% to 7.8%.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving22 (43.1%)83.3%prior 12
Followed too closely8 (15.7%)
Inattention4 (7.8%)
Failed to yield right of way2 (3.9%)
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings1 (2%)
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner1 (2%)
Other improper action1 (2%)
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road1 (2%)
Driving too fast for conditions1 (2%)
Fatigued/asleep1 (2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased from 25 to 33, while crashes during rain decreased from 7 to 4. Similarly, crashes on dry road surfaces rose from 29 to 45, and those on wet surfaces decreased from 12 to 6. Crashes during daylight hours increased from 20 to 36, whereas crashes in dark-lighted roadway conditions slightly decreased from 15 to 13.

Weather

Clear33 (64.7%)
32.0%prior 25
Clear/Clear7 (13.7%)
Rain4 (7.8%)
-42.9%prior 7
Clear/Severe crosswinds3 (5.9%)
Cloudy/Rain2 (3.9%)
Clear/Unknown1 (2.0%)
Cloudy1 (2.0%)
-83.3%prior 6

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight36 (70.6%)
80.0%prior 20
Dark - lighted roadway13 (25.5%)
-13.3%prior 15
Dawn1 (2.0%)
Other1 (2.0%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry45 (88.2%)
55.2%prior 29
Wet6 (11.8%)
-50.0%prior 12

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased from 77 in March 2024 to 97 in March 2025. While Honda remained the top vehicle make, its count slightly decreased from 19 to 18, whereas Ford increased from 7 to 14, and Toyota remained stable at 9. There was a notable increase in persons involved in crashes across younger age groups, with the 21-25 age group rising from 5 to 17 and the 16-20 age group increasing from 7 to 11. Conversely, the 35-44 age group saw a decrease from 24 to 10 persons involved.

Top Vehicle Makes (97 vehicles)

1
HONDA18 (18.6%)
-5.3%prior 19
2
FORD14 (14.4%)
100.0%prior 7
3
TOYOTA9 (9.3%)
0.0%prior 9
4
JEEP8 (8.2%)
5
NISSAN6 (6.2%)
6
CHEVROLET5 (5.2%)
7
SUBARU4 (4.1%)
8
VOLKSWAGEN4 (4.1%)
9
BMW3 (3.1%)
10
INFI2 (2.1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (102 persons with recorded sex)

Male55 (53.9%)
48.6%prior 37
Female47 (46.1%)
38.2%prior 34

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in 50 mph speed zones increased from 10 in March 2024 to 19 in March 2025. Crashes in 30 mph zones also saw an increase from 11 to 13 crashes year-over-year. There were no fatal crashes reported in any speed limit zone for either period.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31 · 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: 2025-03-01 through 2025-03-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-03-01 through 2025-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: SAUGUS, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 51
  • Total persons involved: 113
  • Total vehicles involved: 97

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: March 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-03-01 to 2025-03-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/saugus/march-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 — March 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com