ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MASSACHUSETTS, MA · AUGUST 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/statewide/august-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
10,390 CRASHES IN
MASSACHUSETTS, MA
AUGUST 2025
In August 2025, total crashes decreased by 5.0% to 10,390 from 10,942 in August 2024. This downward trend was mirrored in total fatalities, which fell from 39 to 33. The most significant year-over-year change was a 77.8% decrease in pedestrian fatalities, which dropped from 9 in the prior period to 2 in the current period.
10,390
▼ -5.0%was 10,942
Total Crash Events
33
▼ -15.4%was 39
Persons Killed
3,611
▼ -1.3%was 3,659
Persons Injured
1,076
▼ -1.1%was 1,088
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (33) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (33) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 389 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend indicates a year-over-year decrease in traffic incidents. Total crashes fell by 5.0%, from 10,942 in August 2024 to 10,390 in August 2025. This was accompanied by a 15.4% decrease in fatalities (from 39 to 33) and a 1.3% decrease in total injuries (from 3,659 to 3,611).
1,076
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2025
▼ -1.1% vs prior (1,088)
While the absolute number of hit-and-run crashes decreased slightly from 1,088 to 1,076, the hit-and-run rate trended upwards. Because the total number of crashes fell at a greater rate, hit-and-runs constituted a larger proportion of all incidents. The hit-and-run rate increased from 9.9% in August 2024 to 10.4% in August 2025.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
31
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
93
Pedestrians Injured
148
Cyclists Injured
3,324
Motorists Injured
46
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
Temporal crash patterns remained consistent between the two periods. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both August 2025 (1,954 crashes) and August 2024 (1,910 crashes). The 4 PM hour was also the peak hour in both periods, although the number of crashes during this hour decreased from 983 to 888 year-over-year.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The overall severity of crashes saw a slight reduction compared to the previous year. The number of fatal crashes decreased from 38 to 33, and the corresponding fatal crash rate per 100 crashes fell from 0.35 to 0.32. While the count of serious injury crashes increased from 222 to 234, the number of crashes involving possible injuries decreased from 793 to 706.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors cited in crash reports remained consistent, with "Inattention" and "Failed to yield right of way" being the top driver-related causes in both periods. The count of crashes attributed to inattention decreased by 9.2%, from 1,676 to 1,522. Similarly, crashes involving a failure to yield right of way saw a 2.3% decrease in count from 1,164 to 1,137.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
A notable shift occurred in crashes under adverse road conditions, with incidents on wet roads decreasing by 46.2% from 1,318 to 709. Despite this change, the majority of crashes in both periods occurred on dry roads and during daylight hours. The proportion of crashes in daylight was stable at 76.0% in August 2025 compared to 76.7% in August 2024.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The profile of vehicles and persons involved in crashes remained largely unchanged year-over-year. Toyota, Honda, and Ford were the top three vehicle makes involved in collisions for both periods, though the total count for each make decreased. The age distribution of individuals in crashes was also consistent, with the 26-34 and 35-44 age groups representing the largest cohorts in both August 2024 and August 2025.
Top Vehicle Makes (19,672 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
2,848 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (21,743 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The majority of crashes in both periods occurred in zones with posted speed limits between 25 and 35 mph, accounting for 63.7% of crashes with speed data in August 2025 and 63.9% in the prior year. There was a 15.6% decrease in crashes within zones posted at 55 mph or higher, falling from 1,334 to 1,126. Fatalities in the 30 mph zone increased from 9 to 10, while fatalities in the 65 mph zone decreased from 6 to 4.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 4 of 2,502 (0.16%) · 30 mph: 10 of 2,534 (0.395%) · 35 mph: 8 of 1,227 (0.652%) · 40 mph: 1 of 748 (0.134%) · 45 mph: 1 of 354 (0.282%) · 50 mph: 1 of 218 (0.459%) · 65 mph: 4 of 642 (0.623%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · 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: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: massachusetts, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 10,390
- Total persons involved: 24,739
- Total vehicles involved: 19,672
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). "massachusetts, MA Crash Intelligence Report: August 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/august-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: 2025-08-01 – 2025-08-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved