ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · WORCESTER, MA · AUGUST 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/worcester/august-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
392 CRASHES IN
WORCESTER, MA
AUGUST 2022
In August 2022, Worcester experienced 392 crashes, a slight decrease from the 397 crashes reported in August 2021. However, total fatalities saw a significant increase, rising by 200% from 1 fatality in the prior period to 3 fatalities in the current period. This notable shift indicates a worsening severity despite a marginal reduction in overall crash volume.
392
▼ -1.3%was 397
Total Crash Events
3
▲ 200.0%was 1
Persons Killed
135
▼ -10.0%was 150
Persons Injured
89
▲ 50.8%was 59
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (3) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 76 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash trends for August show a slight decrease in total crashes, falling by 1.26% from 397 in August 2021 to 392 in August 2022. Despite this, total fatalities rose sharply by 200%, from 1 to 3, while total injuries decreased by 10%, from 150 to 135. This suggests a trend of fewer but more severe crash outcomes year-over-year.
89
Hit-and-Run Crashes — August 2022
▲ 50.8% vs prior (59)
Hit-and-run crashes increased substantially, rising by 30 incidents from 59 in August 2021 to 89 in August 2022. This represents a 50.85% increase in the count of hit-and-run crashes. Consequently, the hit-and-run rate also increased from 14.9% to 22.7%, indicating an upward trend in such incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
6
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
128
Motorists Injured
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes shifted from Thursday (68 crashes) in August 2021 to Monday (67 crashes) in August 2022. The peak hour also changed, with 2 PM recording the highest number of crashes (37) in the current period, compared to 12 PM (37 crashes) in the prior period. While the peak crash count remained the same, the distribution across the day shifted.
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Fatal crashes increased significantly, with 3 fatal crashes in August 2022 compared to 1 in August 2021, leading to a fatal crash rate increase from 0.25% to 0.77%. Serious injury crashes (severity A) also rose from 2 (0.5% share) to 10 (2.6% share) year-over-year. Conversely, possible injury crashes (severity C) decreased from 42 (10.6% share) to 33 (8.4% share).
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Crashes attributed to "Followed too closely" saw a substantial increase of 66.67% in count, rising from 18 in August 2021 to 30 in August 2022, and moved from the 4th to the 2nd most cited factor. Conversely, "Failed to yield right of way" crashes decreased by 24.32% in count, from 37 to 28, and "Inattention" crashes decreased by 57.69% in count, from 26 to 11. Speeding-related crashes (kpis.speedingCrashes) increased by 40% in count, from 5 to 7.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in clear weather conditions increased by 16 in count, from 260 to 276, while those in rainy conditions decreased by 13 in count, from 16 to 3. There was a notable decrease of 18 crashes in dark-lighted roadway conditions, from 75 to 57. Crashes on dry road surfaces increased by 14 in count, from 346 to 360, whereas crashes on wet surfaces decreased by 17 in count, from 39 to 22.
Weather
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved in crashes remained relatively stable, increasing slightly from 788 in August 2021 to 791 in August 2022. The age group 65+ saw the largest increase in persons involved, rising by 25 from 47 to 72. Conversely, the 21-25 age group experienced the largest decrease, falling by 39 from 121 to 82. Toyota remained the top vehicle make involved in crashes, despite a decrease of 14 vehicles from 147 to 133.
Top Vehicle Makes (791 vehicles)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Vehicle unit records
218 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (692 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
The total number of crashes with a recorded speed limit decreased from 142 in August 2021 to 120 in August 2022. Notably, crashes in 30 MPH zones decreased by 20 in count, from 84 to 64, while crashes in 50 MPH zones decreased by 5 in count, from 34 to 29. Fatal crashes occurred in 30 MPH and 50 MPH zones in August 2022 (1 in each), where no fatalities were recorded in these zones in August 2021.
Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 64 (1.563%) · 50 mph: 1 of 29 (3.448%)
Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31 · 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: 2022-08-01 through 2022-08-31
- Report generated: June 21, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-08-01 through 2022-08-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: WORCESTER, MA
- Total crash records analyzed: 392
- Total persons involved: 948
- Total vehicles involved: 791
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). "WORCESTER, MA Crash Intelligence Report: August 2022." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/worcester/august-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: 2022-08-01 – 2022-08-31
Generated: June 21, 2026 · All rights reserved