ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · WESTWOOD, MA · AUGUST 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/westwood/august-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
35 CRASHES IN
WESTWOOD, MA
AUGUST 2024
Total crashes in Westwood decreased from 43 in August 2023 to 35 in August 2024, representing an 18.6% reduction year-over-year. Despite fewer overall crashes, total injuries increased by 71.4%, rising from 7 injured persons in August 2023 to 12 in August 2024. This suggests that while crash frequency declined, the severity of outcomes for those involved in crashes increased.
35
▼ -18.6%was 43
Total Crash Events
0
Persons Killed
12
▲ 71.4%was 7
Persons Injured
2
▼ -50.0%was 4
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (0) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (0) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 1 crash with unreported severity is not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash frequency in Westwood decreased year-over-year, with total crashes falling by 18.6% from 43 to 35. However, total injuries rose significantly by 71.4%, from 7 in August 2023 to 12 in August 2024. Fatalities remained at zero for both periods.
2
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2024
▼ -50.0% vs prior (4)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased from 4 in August 2023 to 2 in August 2024, a 50% reduction. Correspondingly, the hit-and-run crash rate decreased from 9.3% to 5.7% year-over-year. This indicates a downward trend in hit-and-run incidents for the period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Motorists Killed
12
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes remained Thursday in both periods, though the number of crashes on Thursdays decreased from 10 in August 2023 to 8 in August 2024. The peak crash hour shifted from 2 PM with 7 crashes in August 2023 to 6 PM with 6 crashes in August 2024. Crashes on Wednesdays saw a decrease from 9 crashes to 5 crashes.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While there were no fatalities in either August 2023 or August 2024, the total number of injuries increased from 7 to 12, a 71.4% rise. The proportion of crashes resulting in minor injuries (severity code B) remained stable at 11.6% in August 2023 and 11.4% in August 2024. However, crashes with possible injuries (severity code C) increased their share from 4.7% to 8.6% year-over-year.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
"Followed too closely" remained the most frequent contributing factor, decreasing from 15 crashes in August 2023 to 13 crashes in August 2024, a 13.3% reduction. "Distracted" driving crashes saw a 200% increase, rising from 1 crash in August 2023 to 3 crashes in August 2024. Conversely, "Failed to yield right of way" decreased by 60%, from 5 crashes to 2 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Clear weather conditions were associated with the majority of crashes in both periods, with 34 crashes occurring in clear conditions in August 2023 and 30 in August 2024. The number of crashes on dry road surfaces decreased from 39 to 31 year-over-year, while crashes on wet road surfaces remained constant at 4. Crashes occurring in daylight decreased from 37 to 30, and those in dark conditions decreased from 6 to 3.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 79 in August 2023 to 68 in August 2024. The age group 65+ saw a notable decrease in representation, from 19 persons involved in August 2023 to 7 in August 2024, while the 21-25 age group increased from 12 to 17 persons. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved, with 13 vehicles in August 2024 compared to 14 in August 2023.
Top Vehicle Makes (68 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
4 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (81 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes occurring in 30 mph speed zones saw a significant decrease, falling from 20 crashes in August 2023 to 6 crashes in August 2024, a 70% reduction. Conversely, crashes in 1 mph speed zones increased from 3 to 9, a 200% rise, and crashes in 55 mph zones increased from 6 to 10, a 66.7% increase. No fatalities were recorded in any speed zone during either period.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31 · 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: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-08-01 through 2024-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: WESTWOOD, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 35
- Total persons involved: 84
- Total vehicles involved: 68
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). "WESTWOOD, MA Crash Intelligence Report: August 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-08-01 to 2024-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/westwood/august-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: 2024-08-01 – 2024-08-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved