ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · SOUTHBRIDGE, MA · JANUARY 2026
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/southbridge/january-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
29 CRASHES IN
SOUTHBRIDGE, MA
JANUARY 2026
In January 2026, Southbridge experienced 29 crashes, a decrease of 17.1% compared to the 35 crashes reported in January 2025. A notable shift is the complete absence of injuries in January 2026, down from 5 injuries in the prior year.
29
▼ -17.1%was 35
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
0
▼ -100.0%was 5
Persons Injured
3
▲ 50.0%was 2
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. 29 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, crash incidents in Southbridge showed a downward trend in January 2026, with total crashes decreasing by 17.1% from 35 in January 2025 to 29. This decline was accompanied by a significant reduction in injuries, falling from 5 in the prior year to 0 in the current period.
3
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2026
▲ 50.0% vs prior (2)
Hit-and-run crashes increased in January 2026, with 3 incidents compared to 2 in January 2025. This led to an increase in the hit-and-run rate, rising from 5.7% of total crashes in the prior year to 10.3% in the current period, indicating an upward trend.
When Crashes Happen
In January 2026, crashes peaked on Thursday with 9 incidents, shifting from Friday which had 8 crashes in January 2025. The peak hour for crashes remained consistently at 5p in both periods, with 4 crashes each. Monday saw a significant decrease from 8 crashes in January 2025 to 2 crashes in January 2026, while Thursday's crashes increased from 5 to 9.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Top Contributing Factors
In January 2026, "No improper driving" remained the leading contributing factor, decreasing slightly from 11 crashes in January 2025 to 10 crashes, a 9.1% reduction in count. "Inattention" also saw a decrease, from 7 crashes to 6 crashes, representing a 14.3% drop in count, while maintaining its position as the second most common factor. "Failed to yield right of way" crashes significantly decreased from 5 in January 2025 to 2 in January 2026, a 60% reduction in count.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
In January 2026, crashes occurring in clear weather conditions accounted for 20 incidents, a decrease from 23 in January 2025, though their share of total crashes increased slightly from 65.7% to 69.0%. There was a notable increase in snow-related crashes, rising from 2 in January 2025 to 6 in January 2026, while rain-related crashes decreased from 5 to 1. Correspondingly, crashes on dry road surfaces decreased from 25 to 16, while crashes on snowy surfaces increased from 2 to 8, indicating a shift towards more adverse road conditions in the current period.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 68 in January 2025 to 53 in January 2026. While FORD remained a top make, its involvement decreased from 11 vehicles to 8, and TOYOTA vehicles involved decreased from 11 to 6. Conversely, SUBARU and CHEVROLET vehicles saw increased involvement, rising from 3 to 6 and 2 to 6 respectively. Regarding persons involved, there was a notable decrease in the 65+ age group, from 12 persons in January 2025 to 2 in January 2026, and a significant increase in the 35-44 age group, from 7 to 12.
Top Vehicle Makes (53 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
14 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (49 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
In January 2026, the majority of crashes, 25 out of 29, occurred in 25 mph zones, increasing from 24 crashes in 25 mph zones in January 2025. This represents a rise in the proportion of crashes in 25 mph zones from 68.6% to 86.2%. Crashes in 10 mph zones decreased from 4 to 1, and in 30 mph zones from 2 to 1. There were no fatalities reported in any speed zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31 · 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: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-01-01 through 2026-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: SOUTHBRIDGE, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 29
- Total persons involved: 67
- 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). "SOUTHBRIDGE, MA Crash Intelligence Report: January 2026." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-01-01 to 2026-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/southbridge/january-2026-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: 2026-01-01 – 2026-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved