ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MASSACHUSETTS, MA · JANUARY 2024
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/january-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
12,858 CRASHES IN
MASSACHUSETTS, MA
JANUARY 2024
In January 2024, there were 12,858 total crashes, a 16.0% increase from the 11,081 crashes recorded in January 2023. This year-over-year rise was accompanied by a significant shift in environmental conditions, with the number of crashes on snowy road surfaces increasing by 99.8%, from 1,213 to 2,424.
12,858
▲ 16.0%was 11,081
Total Crash Events
28
▲ 33.3%was 21
Persons Killed
3,209
▲ 1.7%was 3,155
Persons Injured
1,087
▲ 28.3%was 847
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (28) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (26) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 720 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data from January 2024 indicates an upward trend compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes increased by 16.0%, from 11,081 to 12,858. While total injuries saw a modest rise of 1.7%, the number of fatalities increased by 33.3%, from 21 to 28.
1,087
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2024
▲ 28.3% vs prior (847)
Hit-and-run incidents increased both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of total crashes. The count of hit-and-run crashes rose from 847 in January 2023 to 1,087 in January 2024. This represents an increase in the hit-and-run rate from 7.6% to 8.5% of all crashes, indicating an upward trend for this type of incident.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
9
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
19
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
145
Pedestrians Injured
30
Cyclists Injured
3,028
Motorists Injured
6
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
A comparison of crash timing shows a shift in the most frequent day for collisions, moving from Monday (2,242 crashes) in January 2023 to Tuesday (2,551 crashes) in January 2024. The peak hour for crashes remained consistent at 5 PM in both periods, though the volume of crashes during this hour increased from 957 to 1,077.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes shifted slightly between January 2023 and January 2024. The fatal crash rate increased from 0.19% to 0.20% of all crashes. However, the overall proportion of crashes resulting in an injury decreased, with serious injury crashes falling from 1.6% to 1.2% and minor injury crashes decreasing from 12.5% to 11.4% of the total. Correspondingly, the share of crashes with no reported injuries rose from 72.6% to 75.2%.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 26 fatal crash events resulted in 28 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors remained consistent year-over-year, with 'No improper driving,' 'Inattention,' and 'Failed to yield right of way' as the top reported factors in both periods. However, the count for several factors changed notably. Crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions' saw a 66.1% increase in count, rising from 610 to 1,013. Similarly, crashes involving 'Inattention' increased by 11.9% (from 1,324 to 1,481) and 'Followed too closely' grew by 12.1% (from 879 to 985).
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Environmental conditions differed significantly between the two periods, particularly regarding road surface. In January 2024, crashes on snowy roads accounted for 18.8% of all incidents (2,424 crashes), up from 11.0% (1,213 crashes) in January 2023. Crashes on icy surfaces also increased, representing 6.0% of the total compared to 3.1% previously. Conversely, the proportion of crashes on wet roads decreased from 34.1% to 18.6%.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The composition of vehicles and persons involved in crashes showed high stability year-over-year. The top five vehicle makes involved in collisions were identical in both January 2024 and January 2023: Toyota, Honda, Ford, Chevrolet, and Nissan, in that order. Similarly, the age distribution of persons involved in crashes remained consistent, with no significant shifts in the proportional representation of any age group between the two periods.
Top Vehicle Makes (22,736 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
2,842 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (24,534 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The distribution of crashes across different speed zones remained stable, with no significant proportional shifts toward higher or lower speed limit areas. However, the rate of fatal crashes within certain zones changed. For instance, in 35 mph zones, the fatal crash rate increased from 0.133% to 0.239%. Similarly, the fatal crash rate in 55 mph zones rose from 0.187% in January 2023 to 0.490% in January 2024.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 348 (0.287%) · 25 mph: 4 of 2,431 (0.165%) · 30 mph: 5 of 3,497 (0.143%) · 35 mph: 4 of 1,672 (0.239%) · 40 mph: 2 of 941 (0.213%) · 45 mph: 3 of 457 (0.656%) · 50 mph: 1 of 274 (0.365%) · 55 mph: 3 of 612 (0.49%) · 65 mph: 2 of 913 (0.219%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: massachusetts, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 12,858
- Total persons involved: 27,775
- Total vehicles involved: 22,736
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: January 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/january-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly
Period: 2024-01-01 – 2024-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved