ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · WESTFIELD, MA · 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/westfield/2023-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
606 CRASHES IN
WESTFIELD, MA
2023
In 2023, Westfield recorded 606 total traffic crashes, a 10.2% decrease from the 675 crashes reported in 2022. While overall crashes and injuries declined, the city experienced one fatal crash in 2023, whereas there were none in the prior year. The number of hit-and-run incidents also increased from 15 to 20.
606
▼ -10.2%was 675
Total Crash Events
1
Persons Killed
267
▼ -11.0%was 300
Persons Injured
20
▲ 33.3%was 15
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 7 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic incidents in Westfield showed a downward trend, with total crashes decreasing by 10.2% from 675 in 2022 to 606 in 2023. The number of resulting injuries also fell by 11% from 300 to 267. However, this period saw the emergence of one fatality, compared to zero in the previous year.
20
Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2023
▲ 33.3% vs prior (15)
Hit-and-run incidents increased in both absolute numbers and as a proportion of total crashes. The count of hit-and-run crashes rose by 33.3%, from 15 in 2022 to 20 in 2023. This pushed the hit-and-run rate up from 2.2% of all crashes in the prior year to 3.3% in the current year.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
6
Pedestrians Injured
13
Cyclists Injured
247
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal pattern of crashes showed some shifts between the two years. The peak day for crashes moved from Friday (118 incidents) in 2022 to Thursday (100 incidents) in 2023. The peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 4 PM in both periods, though the volume of crashes during this hour decreased from 62 in 2022 to 51 in 2023.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Crash severity saw a mixed change year-over-year. In 2023, there was one fatal crash, representing 0.2% of all incidents, whereas 2022 had none. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injury decreased from 2.8% (19 crashes) in 2022 to 2.1% (13 crashes) in 2023. The overall share of crashes involving any level of injury remained stable, accounting for 33.5% of crashes in 2023 compared to 33.3% in 2022.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor in both periods was 'Failed to yield right of way,' with the count decreasing from 129 crashes in 2022 to 115 in 2023. The top three primary factors remained the same year-over-year, with 'No improper driving' and 'Inattention' following. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Disregarded traffic signs' decreased by 51.7% in count, from 29 to 14 incidents. Conversely, crashes involving 'Exceeded authorized speed limit' increased in count by 71.4%, from 7 to 12.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
While most crashes in both years occurred in daylight on dry roads, there was a notable shift in crashes under adverse conditions. In 2023, 21.5% of crashes happened on wet road surfaces, an increase from a 13.5% share in 2022. Correspondingly, crashes during rain increased their share of the total from 5.5% in 2022 to 9.6% in 2023. Crashes in daylight conditions constituted a slightly higher share of the total, rising from 67.1% to 71.0%.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The most common vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent, with Toyota, Ford, and Honda being the top three in both 2022 and 2023, though counts for each decreased. When analyzing the age of persons involved, the distribution remained largely stable. However, the number of individuals aged 65 and older involved in crashes saw a slight increase from 149 to 151, and their proportional representation grew from 9.6% of all persons in 2022 to 10.6% in 2023.
Top Vehicle Makes (1,088 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
63 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (1,359 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The distribution of crashes across different speed zones showed a general decrease, with the largest drop occurring in 30 MPH zones, from 208 to 177 crashes. The number of crashes in 40 MPH and 65 MPH zones remained relatively stable, with counts of 150 and 55 respectively in 2023. The single fatal crash recorded in 2023 occurred in a 65 MPH speed zone; there were no fatal crashes in any speed zone during 2022.
Fatal crashes by zone: 65 mph: 1 of 55 (1.818%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · 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: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: WESTFIELD, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 606
- Total persons involved: 1,427
- Total vehicles involved: 1,088
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). "WESTFIELD, MA Crash Intelligence Report: 2023." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/westfield/2023-annual-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: 2023-01-01 – 2023-12-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved