ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · SOMERVILLE, MA · MAY 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/somerville/may-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
27 CRASHES IN
SOMERVILLE, MA
MAY 2025
In May 2025, Somerville experienced 27 total crashes, a significant decrease from the 60 crashes reported in May 2024. This represents a 55% reduction in total crashes year-over-year. The most notable shift was the substantial decrease in bicycle crashes, which dropped from 8 in May 2024 to just 1 in May 2025.
27
▼ -55.0%was 60
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
6
▼ -62.5%was 16
Persons Injured
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 · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash data for Somerville indicates a significant downward trend year-over-year. Total crashes decreased by 55%, from 60 in May 2024 to 27 in May 2025. Concurrently, total injuries also saw a substantial reduction, falling by 62.5% from 16 to 6.
4
Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2025
▼ 0.0% vs prior (4)
The number of hit-and-run crashes remained constant at 4 in both May 2024 and May 2025. However, due to the overall decrease in total crashes, the hit-and-run rate increased from 6.7% in May 2024 to 14.8% in May 2025, indicating an upward trend in the proportion of crashes involving a hit-and-run.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
0
Motorists Killed
2
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
3
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · 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 between the two periods. In May 2024, Tuesday was the peak day for crashes with 11 incidents, while in May 2025, Saturday became the peak day with 6 crashes. The peak hour also shifted from 11 AM with 7 crashes in May 2024 to 10 AM with 5 crashes in May 2025.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
There were no fatal crashes or fatalities reported in either May 2024 or May 2025. Minor injury crashes decreased from 10 to 5, though their share of total crashes slightly increased from 16.7% to 18.5%. Possible injury crashes also saw a reduction, dropping from 5 to 1, with their share decreasing from 8.3% to 3.7%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor, 'No improper driving,' decreased in count from 16 in May 2024 to 7 in May 2025, a 56.25% reduction, while its share of total crashes remained stable (26.7% vs 25.9%). 'Failed to yield right of way' saw a significant decrease from 13 crashes to 2 crashes. Conversely, 'Inattention' increased from 1 crash in May 2024 to 5 crashes in May 2025.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions, combining 'Clear' and 'Clear/Clear' categories, represented 75% of crashes in May 2024 and 70.4% in May 2025, showing a stable proportion despite fewer total crashes. Crashes on dry road surfaces remained the majority, accounting for 83.3% in May 2024 and 81.5% in May 2025. The proportion of crashes occurring in dark conditions (lighted or unlighted) slightly increased from 20% in May 2024 to 25.9% in May 2025.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The ranking of top vehicle makes involved in crashes shifted year-over-year. In May 2024, Toyota was the most frequent make with 26 vehicles, followed by Honda (20) and Ford (11); however, in May 2025, Honda became the most frequent with 10 vehicles, followed by Ford (7) and Toyota (4). The age group 26-34 remained the largest demographic involved in crashes, though its count decreased from 31 persons in May 2024 to 18 persons in May 2025.
Top Vehicle Makes (53 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Vehicle unit records
13 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (46 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 25 mph speed limit zone remained the highest in both periods, decreasing from 26 crashes in May 2024 to 13 crashes in May 2025, a 50% reduction. Crashes in the 20 mph zone also significantly decreased from 13 to 2. There were no fatal crashes reported in any speed limit zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31 · 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: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-05-01 through 2025-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: SOMERVILLE, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 27
- Total persons involved: 60
- Total vehicles involved: 53
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). "SOMERVILLE, MA Crash Intelligence Report: May 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-05-01 to 2025-05-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/somerville/may-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: 2025-05-01 – 2025-05-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved