Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

201 CRASHES IN
SPRINGFIELD, MA
AUGUST 2024

All metrics benchmarked againstAugust 2023

In August 2024, Springfield, MA experienced 201 crashes, a significant decrease of 34.31% compared to the 306 crashes in August 2023. The most notable shift was the increase in total fatalities from zero to one during the same period. Total injuries also saw a substantial decrease, falling from 157 to 97.

201

▼ -34.3%was 306

Total Crash Events

1

Persons Killed

97

▼ -38.2%was 157

Persons Injured

40

▲ 14.3%was 35

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 15 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash incidents in Springfield, MA showed a downward trend year-over-year, decreasing by 34.31% from 306 crashes in August 2023 to 201 crashes in August 2024. Despite this reduction in total crashes, fatalities increased from 0 to 1. Total injuries decreased by 38.22% from 157 to 97.

40

Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2024

▲ 14.3% vs prior (35)

Hit-and-run crashes increased by 14.29% year-over-year, rising from 35 incidents in August 2023 to 40 in August 2024. Consequently, the hit-and-run crash rate increased from 11.4% of total crashes in the prior period to 19.9% in the current period, indicating an upward trend in these incidents.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Motorists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

4

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 3↑33.3%

1

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 5↓-80.0%

92

Motorists Injured

Prior: 149↓-38.3%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · 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 Wednesday with 62 crashes in August 2023 to Friday with 43 crashes in August 2024. The peak crash hour also changed, moving from 4 PM with 22 crashes in August 2023 to 3 PM with 21 crashes in August 2024, indicating a slight shift in daily crash patterns.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes increased from 0 in August 2023 to 1 in August 2024. The number of serious injury crashes (severity 'A') doubled from 3 to 6, while minor injury crashes (severity 'B') decreased from 72 to 38. This indicates a shift towards fewer overall injury crashes but an increase in the most severe outcomes.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal1fatal crashes0.5%
Serious Injury6serious injury crashes3%
↑100.0%prior 3
Minor Injury38minor injury crashes18.9%
↓-47.2%prior 72
Possible Injury19possible injury crashes9.5%
↓-34.5%prior 29
No Injury122no injury crashes60.7%
↓-34.8%prior 187

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Several key contributing factors saw notable changes year-over-year. Crashes attributed to 'Failed to yield right of way' decreased significantly from 62 in August 2023 to 22 in August 2024, representing a 64.52% reduction in count. Similarly, 'Inattention' related crashes decreased by 26.67% in count, from 60 to 44. Conversely, crashes attributed to 'Exceeded authorized speed limit' increased by 40% in count, from 5 to 7.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Inattention44 (21.9%)↓-26.7%prior 60
No improper driving36 (17.9%)↓-14.3%prior 42
Failed to yield right of way22 (10.9%)↓-64.5%prior 62
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road14 (7%)↓-22.2%prior 18
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings10 (5%)↓-16.7%prior 12
Other improper action8 (4%)↓-20.0%prior 10
Driving too fast for conditions8 (4%)
Followed too closely8 (4%)↓-60.0%prior 20
Operating vehicle in erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner7 (3.5%)↓-22.2%prior 9
Exceeded authorized speed limit7 (3.5%)↑40.0%prior 5

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather decreased from 235 to 149, while those during rain increased from 12 to 21. Crashes during daylight hours also saw a reduction from 214 to 144. The number of crashes on dry road surfaces decreased from 259 to 162, with wet surface crashes also decreasing from 46 to 35.

Weather

Clear149 (75.3%)
↓-36.6%prior 235
Rain21 (10.6%)
↑75.0%prior 12
Cloudy12 (6.1%)
↓-64.7%prior 34
Cloudy/Rain6 (3.0%)
↓-25.0%prior 8
Clear/Cloudy4 (2.0%)
Fog, smog, smoke/Cloudy1 (0.5%)
Cloudy/Other1 (0.5%)
Rain/Cloudy1 (0.5%)
↓-80.0%prior 5
Rain/Severe crosswinds1 (0.5%)
Sleet, hail (freezing rain or drizzle)/Rain1 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight144 (72.4%)
↓-32.7%prior 214
Dark - lighted roadway43 (21.6%)
↓-38.6%prior 70
Dusk6 (3.0%)
↓-45.5%prior 11
Dawn5 (2.5%)
→0.0%prior 5
Dark - roadway not lighted1 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry162 (81.8%)
↓-37.5%prior 259
Wet35 (17.7%)
↓-23.9%prior 46
Water (standing, moving)1 (0.5%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of persons involved in crashes decreased from 786 to 501 year-over-year, with all reported age groups showing a reduction in involvement. The 45-54 age group experienced the largest numerical decrease, falling from 98 to 47 involved persons. While Honda was the top vehicle make involved in August 2023 with 92 vehicles, Toyota became the top make in August 2024 with 68 vehicles.

Top Vehicle Makes (378 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA68 (18%)
↓-18.1%prior 83
2
HONDA62 (16.4%)
↓-32.6%prior 92
3
NISSAN30 (7.9%)
↓-38.8%prior 49
4
CHEVROLET27 (7.1%)
↓-15.6%prior 32
5
FORD27 (7.1%)
↓-49.1%prior 53
6
HYUNDAI23 (6.1%)
↓-30.3%prior 33
7
VOLKSWAGEN10 (2.6%)
↑25.0%prior 8
8
MERCEDES-BENZ10 (2.6%)
↑42.9%prior 7
9
JEEP8 (2.1%)
↓-68.0%prior 25
10
SUBARU8 (2.1%)
↓-20.0%prior 10

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (411 persons with recorded sex)

Male208 (50.6%)
↓-43.5%prior 368
Female203 (49.4%)
↓-36.4%prior 319

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes across most speed limit zones saw decreases, such as the 30 mph zone decreasing from 105 crashes to 47. Notably, the only fatal crash in August 2024 occurred in a 55 mph speed limit zone, where no fatalities were recorded in August 2023 despite the same number of crashes (16) in that zone. All other speed limit zones recorded zero fatalities in both periods.

Fatal crashes by zone: 55 mph: 1 of 16 (6.25%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · 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: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: SPRINGFIELD, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 201
  • Total persons involved: 501
  • Total vehicles involved: 378

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). "SPRINGFIELD, MA Crash Intelligence Report: August 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/springfield/august-2024-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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Springfield, MA Crash Report — August 2024 | ThatCarHitMe.com