ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MASSACHUSETTS, MA · FEBRUARY 2023
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/february-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
9,327 CRASHES IN
MASSACHUSETTS, MA
FEBRUARY 2023
In February 2023, there were 9,327 total crashes recorded in Massachusetts, representing a 13.6% decrease from the 10,795 crashes in February 2022. This overall decline was accompanied by a notable 42.1% drop in crashes where 'Driving too fast for conditions' was a contributing factor, which fell from 722 to 418 incidents year-over-year. Fatalities decreased slightly from 34 to 31, while total injuries remained nearly stable at 2,640.
9,327
▼ -13.6%was 10,795
Total Crash Events
31
▼ -8.8%was 34
Persons Killed
2,640
▲ 0.7%was 2,621
Persons Injured
864
▲ 2.1%was 846
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (31) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (29) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 553 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data indicates a significant downward trend in February 2023 compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes decreased by 13.6%, from 10,795 to 9,327. During this period, total fatalities also declined from 34 to 31, while the number of injuries saw a slight increase from 2,621 to 2,640.
864
Hit-and-Run Crashes — February 2023
▲ 2.1% vs prior (846)
While total crashes declined, the number of hit-and-run incidents increased slightly from 846 in February 2022 to 864 in February 2023. This resulted in a more pronounced rise in the hit-and-run rate. The rate of hit-and-runs per 100 crashes increased from 7.8 in the prior year to 9.3 in the current period, indicating an upward trend for this incident type as a proportion of all crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
8
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
23
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
118
Pedestrians Injured
35
Cyclists Injured
2,476
Motorists Injured
11
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes showed some shifts between the two periods. The peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 3 PM in both February 2022 and 2023, although the volume of crashes at that hour decreased from 817 to 709. The peak day for crashes moved from Friday (1,988 crashes) in 2022 to Thursday (1,657 crashes) in 2023.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While the total number of crashes decreased, the severity profile shifted. The fatal crash rate per 100 crashes remained stable at 0.31 in February 2023 compared to 0.30 in the prior year. However, the proportion of crashes resulting in an injury increased, accounting for 21.1% of all crashes in 2023, up from 18.5% in 2022. This was driven by a rise in the share of both serious injury crashes (from 1.1% to 1.5%) and minor injury crashes (from 10.4% to 12.7%).
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 29 fatal crash events resulted in 31 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The ranking of the top four primary contributing factors was consistent year-over-year, led by 'No improper driving' and 'Inattention'. However, the count of crashes attributed to most factors decreased. Most notably, crashes involving 'Driving too fast for conditions' fell by 42.1% in count, from 722 incidents in February 2022 to 418 in February 2023. Crashes attributed to 'Inattention' also saw a 7.3% decrease in count, from 1,254 to 1,162.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
A significant year-over-year difference was observed in road surface conditions at the time of crashes. In February 2023, 26.7% of crashes occurred on adverse surfaces like snow, ice, or wet roads, a substantial decrease from February 2022, when such conditions were present in 46.3% of crashes. Consequently, the share of crashes on dry roads increased from 51.9% to 71.8% of the total. The distribution of crashes by lighting condition remained proportionally similar between the two periods.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The composition of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent, with Toyota, Honda, and Ford being the top three most common makes in both February 2023 and February 2022, though their counts decreased with the overall trend. Analysis of persons involved shows a demographic shift, with the proportion of individuals aged 65 and older increasing from 8.3% of the total in 2022 to 9.7% in 2023. Concurrently, the share of persons in the 26-34 age group decreased from 18.5% to 17.0%.
Top Vehicle Makes (16,923 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Vehicle unit records
2,329 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (18,497 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes decreased across most posted speed limit zones year-over-year. The 30 MPH zone, which had the highest number of crashes in both periods, saw a reduction from 2,979 incidents in February 2022 to 2,531 in February 2023. A notable drop also occurred in 65 MPH zones, where crashes fell from 819 to 619. Fatal crashes also declined in the 30 MPH zone (from 10 to 7) and the 65 MPH zone (from 6 to 4).
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 3 of 1,773 (0.169%) · 30 mph: 7 of 2,531 (0.277%) · 35 mph: 5 of 1,261 (0.397%) · 40 mph: 5 of 715 (0.699%) · 45 mph: 2 of 345 (0.58%) · 55 mph: 2 of 480 (0.417%) · 65 mph: 4 of 619 (0.646%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28 · 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: 2023-02-01 through 2023-02-28
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-02-01 through 2023-02-28 (28 days)
- Geographic scope: massachusetts, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 9,327
- Total persons involved: 21,107
- Total vehicles involved: 16,923
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: February 2023." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-02-01 to 2023-02-28. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/february-2023-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: 2023-02-01 – 2023-02-28
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved