ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MASSACHUSETTS, MA · JANUARY 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/january-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
11,386 CRASHES IN
MASSACHUSETTS, MA
JANUARY 2025
In January 2025, there were 11,386 total crashes, an 11.5% decrease from the 12,858 crashes recorded in January 2024. Despite the overall drop in collisions, the number of fatalities increased from 28 to 31. A significant factor in the overall crash reduction appears to be a substantial decrease in crashes occurring on adverse road surfaces (snow, ice, wet, or slush), which fell from 5,967 incidents in the prior year to 3,260 in the current period.
11,386
▼ -11.4%was 12,858
Total Crash Events
31
▲ 10.7%was 28
Persons Killed
3,274
▲ 2.0%was 3,209
Persons Injured
1,010
▼ -7.1%was 1,087
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (31) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (31) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 480 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Year-over-year, total traffic crashes in January saw a notable decrease of 11.5%, falling from 12,858 in 2024 to 11,386 in 2025. However, this downward trend in overall crashes did not extend to severity, as total fatalities rose by 10.7% (from 28 to 31) and total injuries saw a slight increase of 2.0% (from 3,209 to 3,274).
1,010
Hit-and-Run Crashes — January 2025
▼ -7.1% vs prior (1,087)
The total number of hit-and-run crashes decreased from 1,087 in January 2024 to 1,010 in January 2025, a reduction of 7.1%. However, because total crashes fell by a larger margin, the hit-and-run rate—the proportion of all crashes that were hit-and-runs—actually increased. The rate rose from 8.5% in the prior year to 8.9% in the current period, indicating that hit-and-runs constituted a larger share of all crashes.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
10
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
21
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
164
Pedestrians Injured
33
Cyclists Injured
3,057
Motorists Injured
20
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes shifted significantly between the two periods. In January 2025, the peak day for crashes was Friday with 1,867 incidents, a change from January 2024 when Tuesday was the peak day with 2,551 crashes. The peak hour also changed, moving from the 5 p.m. evening commute in the prior year (1,077 crashes) to the 8 a.m. morning commute in the current year (908 crashes).
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Although total crashes decreased, the severity of crashes increased year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes rose from 26 to 31, and the fatal crash rate increased from 0.20% to 0.27% of all crashes. Similarly, the count of serious injury crashes grew from 157 to 180, representing a proportional increase from 1.2% to 1.6% of all crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injuries decreased from 75.2% to 73.7%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
While the top contributing factors remained consistent in ranking, their counts shifted year-over-year. The most significant change was in crashes attributed to "Driving too fast for conditions," which plummeted by 50.7% in count from 1,013 incidents in January 2024 to 499 in January 2025. Crashes involving "Inattention" also saw a decrease in count from 1,481 to 1,348. Conversely, crashes where a driver "Failed to yield right of way" saw a slight increase in count from 1,123 to 1,135.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Driving conditions in January 2025 were markedly different from the previous year, which corresponds with the overall drop in crashes. Crashes occurring on adverse road surfaces (snow, wet, ice, or slush) decreased substantially, from 5,967 incidents (46.4% of total) in 2024 to 3,260 (28.6% of total) in 2025. Consequently, crashes on dry roads increased in count from 6,593 to 7,867. A higher proportion of crashes occurred during daylight (58.1% vs 55.6%) in the current period.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The demographic profile of vehicles involved in crashes remained largely stable year-over-year. The top five most frequently involved vehicle makes—Toyota, Honda, Ford, Chevrolet, and Nissan—retained their rankings in both January 2024 and January 2025, with counts for each decreasing in line with the overall drop in crashes. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes also showed little change, though there was a slight proportional increase in individuals aged 65 and older, from 9.8% of the total in the prior year to 10.4% in the current year.
Top Vehicle Makes (20,875 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
2,624 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (22,611 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crash distribution across speed zones shifted towards lower-speed urban roads. Crashes in 25 mph zones increased in count from 2,431 to 2,853, while collisions in 65 mph zones decreased from 913 to 568. Despite fewer crashes in high-speed zones, the number of fatal crashes within them increased; the 65 mph zone saw fatal crashes rise from 2 to 7. This resulted in a significantly higher fatal crash rate for the 65 mph zone, which jumped from 0.22% in the prior year to 1.23% in the current year.
Fatal crashes by zone: 15 mph: 1 of 182 (0.549%) · 25 mph: 7 of 2,853 (0.245%) · 30 mph: 6 of 2,993 (0.2%) · 35 mph: 3 of 1,479 (0.203%) · 40 mph: 4 of 808 (0.495%) · 60 mph: 1 of 31 (3.226%) · 65 mph: 7 of 568 (1.232%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 · 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: 2025-01-01 through 2025-01-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-01-01 through 2025-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: massachusetts, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 11,386
- Total persons involved: 25,479
- Total vehicles involved: 20,875
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 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/january-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: 2025-01-01 – 2025-01-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved