ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MASSACHUSETTS, MA · MAY 2022
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/may-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
11,271 CRASHES IN
MASSACHUSETTS, MA
MAY 2022
In May 2022, there were 11,271 total crashes, a 5.2% increase from the 10,711 crashes recorded in May 2021. This year-over-year rise was accompanied by a notable increase in traffic fatalities, which climbed from 34 to 43, representing a 26.5% increase.
11,271
▲ 5.2%was 10,711
Total Crash Events
43
▲ 26.5%was 34
Persons Killed
3,582
▲ 5.8%was 3,387
Persons Injured
912
▲ 26.0%was 724
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (43) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (40) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 1,017 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crash trends show an increase in May 2022 compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes rose by 5.2% from 10,711 to 11,271. Similarly, total injuries increased by 5.8%, and the number of fatalities saw a significant 26.5% rise from 34 to 43 persons killed.
912
Hit-and-Run Crashes — May 2022
▲ 26.0% vs prior (724)
Hit-and-run incidents increased significantly in May 2022 compared to the previous year. The total count of hit-and-run crashes rose by 26.0%, from 724 to 912. This outpaced the overall growth in crashes, causing the hit-and-run rate to climb from 6.8% to 8.1% of all reported incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
11
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
31
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
96
Pedestrians Injured
114
Cyclists Injured
3,361
Motorists Injured
11
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
Temporal patterns shifted slightly between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Saturday (1,744 crashes) in May 2021 to Tuesday (1,850 crashes) in May 2022. However, the peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 3 PM in both years, with crash counts in that hour increasing from 911 to 966.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes showed a concerning trend, with the fatal crash rate increasing from 0.31% to 0.35% year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes rose from 33 to 40. While the proportion of serious injury crashes remained stable at 2.1%, the share of crashes resulting in minor or possible injuries saw a slight decrease.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 40 fatal crash events resulted in 43 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors remained consistent year-over-year, with 'Inattention' and 'Failed to yield right of way' being the top driver-related causes after 'No improper driving'. However, the number of crashes attributed to these factors increased; crashes involving failure to yield grew by 11.4% from 1,029 to 1,146, and those from following too closely rose by 10.9% from 914 to 1,014. The count of crashes involving inattention saw a smaller increase of 2.1%.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crash conditions were broadly similar year-over-year, with the vast majority of incidents in both periods occurring during daylight on dry roads. In May 2022, 90.2% of crashes happened on dry surfaces, an increase in share from 84.8% in May 2021. Correspondingly, crashes in the rain accounted for a smaller share of the total in 2022 compared to the prior year.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes remained unchanged: Toyota, Honda, and Ford led in both May 2022 and May 2021, with counts for each make increasing. Analysis of persons involved shows a demographic shift, with a decrease in the number of individuals aged 16-20 involved in crashes (from 2,883 to 2,746). Conversely, involvement increased for several other age groups, including the 65+ cohort, which grew from 2,352 to 2,635 persons.
Top Vehicle Makes (21,004 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Vehicle unit records
3,287 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (22,704 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The distribution of crashes across different speed zones remained relatively stable year-over-year, with most incidents occurring in 30 mph zones in both periods. However, the fatal crash rate within specific zones showed notable changes. The fatality rate in 45 mph zones more than doubled from 0.654% to 1.408%, and the rate in 65 mph zones increased from 0.156% to 0.441%.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 6 of 2,091 (0.287%) · 30 mph: 10 of 3,174 (0.315%) · 35 mph: 6 of 1,438 (0.417%) · 40 mph: 2 of 761 (0.263%) · 45 mph: 6 of 426 (1.408%) · 55 mph: 2 of 538 (0.372%) · 60 mph: 1 of 61 (1.639%) · 65 mph: 3 of 680 (0.441%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · 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: 2022-05-01 through 2022-05-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-05-01 through 2022-05-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: massachusetts, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 11,271
- Total persons involved: 26,326
- Total vehicles involved: 21,004
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: May 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/may-2022-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: 2022-05-01 – 2022-05-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved