ThatCarHitMe.com
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YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · MASSACHUSETTS, MA · SEPTEMBER 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/september-2025-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
10,460 CRASHES IN
MASSACHUSETTS, MA
SEPTEMBER 2025
In September 2025, there were 10,460 total crashes, a 3.0% decrease from the 10,787 crashes recorded in September 2024. The most significant year-over-year change was a substantial drop in traffic fatalities, which decreased by 51.2% from 43 to 21. Overall, key safety metrics showed improvement compared to the prior year.
10,460
▼ -3.0%was 10,787
Total Crash Events
21
▼ -51.2%was 43
Persons Killed
3,391
▼ -5.7%was 3,596
Persons Injured
1,003
▼ -3.8%was 1,043
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (21) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (20) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 383 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic safety metrics improved in September 2025 compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes decreased by 3.0%, from 10,787 to 10,460. Notably, both total injuries and total fatalities saw larger declines, falling by 5.7% and 51.2% respectively.
1,003
Hit-and-Run Crashes — September 2025
▼ -3.8% vs prior (1,043)
The number of hit-and-run incidents decreased from 1,043 in September 2024 to 1,003 in September 2025, a decline of 3.8%. The hit-and-run rate, representing the percentage of all crashes that were hit-and-runs, also saw a marginal decrease. The rate fell from 9.7% in the prior period to 9.6% in the current period, indicating a slight downward trend.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
4
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
17
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
94
Pedestrians Injured
126
Cyclists Injured
3,115
Motorists Injured
56
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · 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 day for crashes moved from Monday (1,704 crashes) in September 2024 to Tuesday (1,830 crashes) in September 2025. Similarly, the peak hour for collisions shifted slightly earlier, from 4 p.m. in the prior year (998 crashes) to 3 p.m. in the current year (911 crashes).
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Crash severity decreased year-over-year, with the fatal crash rate dropping from 0.38% in September 2024 to 0.19% in September 2025, as the number of fatal crashes fell from 41 to 20. The proportion of crashes resulting in any level of injury (serious, minor, or possible) also saw a slight decrease, accounting for 24.0% of all crashes in the current period compared to 24.9% in the prior period.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 20 fatal crash events resulted in 21 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with 'No improper driving,' 'Inattention,' and 'Failed to yield right of way' as the top three in both September 2024 and September 2025. The counts for these top factors showed minimal change; for instance, crashes attributed to 'Inattention' increased by 1.4% from 1,530 to 1,552, while those for 'Followed too closely' decreased by 4.2% from 1,061 to 1,016. The overall ranking of the top five factors did not change between the two periods.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crash conditions remained broadly similar year-over-year, with the vast majority of incidents in both periods occurring in daylight and on dry roads. In September 2025, 74.4% of crashes happened in daylight, a slight increase from a 72.3% share in the prior year. The proportion of crashes on wet road surfaces was stable at approximately 11%, while the share of crashes in clear weather increased from 77.0% to 80.9%.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes—Toyota, Honda, and Ford—remained unchanged between September 2024 and September 2025, with counts for each decreasing slightly in line with the overall trend. An analysis of persons involved shows a shift in age demographics. The proportion of individuals in the 26-34 age group decreased from 16.9% to 15.6% of all persons involved, while the share of those aged 65 and older increased from 11.1% to 12.3%.
Top Vehicle Makes (19,854 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Vehicle unit records
2,653 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (22,080 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the most common speed zones of 25, 30, and 35 mph saw varied changes, with a 2.4% increase in 25 mph zones and decreases in 30 mph (-5.3%) and 35 mph (-4.9%) zones. Fatal crashes in the 65 mph zone increased from 3 to 5, even as the total number of crashes in that zone decreased from 614 to 588. Conversely, fatal crashes in 35 mph zones dropped significantly from 8 to 2.
Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 3 of 2,482 (0.121%) · 30 mph: 7 of 2,680 (0.261%) · 35 mph: 2 of 1,317 (0.152%) · 40 mph: 1 of 717 (0.139%) · 45 mph: 1 of 332 (0.301%) · 65 mph: 5 of 588 (0.85%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · 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: 2025-09-01 through 2025-09-30
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2025-09-01 through 2025-09-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: massachusetts, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 10,460
- Total persons involved: 24,873
- Total vehicles involved: 19,854
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: September 2025." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/september-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: 2025-09-01 – 2025-09-30
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved