Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

513 CRASHES IN
WORCESTER, MA
OCTOBER 2024

All metrics benchmarked againstOctober 2023

In October 2024, WORCESTER experienced 513 crashes, a slight increase from 508 crashes in October 2023, representing a 0.98% rise. The most significant change was in fatalities, which increased from 0 in October 2023 to 2 in October 2024.

513

1.0%was 508

Total Crash Events

2

Persons Killed

174

37.0%was 127

Persons Injured

100

-7.4%was 108

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (2) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (2) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 42 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash incidents in WORCESTER saw a marginal increase of 0.98% year-over-year, from 508 crashes in October 2023 to 513 crashes in October 2024. Total injuries rose by 37.01%, from 127 to 174, while fatalities increased from 0 to 2 during the same period.

100

Hit-and-Run Crashes — October 2024

-7.4% vs prior (108)

Hit-and-run crashes decreased from 108 in October 2023 to 100 in October 2024, a reduction of 8 incidents. The hit-and-run rate also decreased from 21.3% to 19.5% year-over-year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 00.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 00.0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 00.0%

6

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 9-33.3%

8

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 2300.0%

159

Motorists Injured

Prior: 11637.1%

1

Other Injured

Prior: 0%

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · 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 Tuesday with 82 crashes in October 2023 to Thursday with 89 crashes in October 2024. The peak hour also changed, moving from 5 p.m. with 45 crashes in October 2023 to 4 p.m. with 51 crashes in October 2024.

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes increased from 0 in October 2023 to 2 in October 2024, resulting in a fatal crash rate of 0.39% in the current period. Serious injury crashes increased from 6 (1.2% of crashes) to 8 (1.6% of crashes), and minor injury crashes rose from 51 (10% of crashes) to 67 (13.1% of crashes) year-over-year.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal2fatal crashes0.4%
Serious Injury8serious injury crashes1.6%
33.3%prior 6
Minor Injury67minor injury crashes13.1%
31.4%prior 51
Possible Injury55possible injury crashes10.7%
44.7%prior 38
No Injury339no injury crashes66.1%
2.1%prior 332

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Crashes attributed to 'No improper driving' increased by 27 counts, from 151 in October 2023 to 178 in October 2024, representing a share increase from 29.7% to 34.7%. Conversely, crashes due to 'Followed too closely' decreased by 19 counts, from 38 to 19. Crashes involving 'Inattention' rose by 9 counts, from 11 to 20, indicating a 81.82% increase in count.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

No improper driving178 (34.7%)17.9%prior 151
Failed to yield right of way34 (6.6%)9.7%prior 31
Inattention20 (3.9%)81.8%prior 11
Followed too closely19 (3.7%)-50.0%prior 38
Disregarded traffic signs, signals, road markings18 (3.5%)50.0%prior 12
Other improper action14 (2.7%)
Failure to keep in proper lane or running off road12 (2.3%)-20.0%prior 15
Exceeded authorized speed limit9 (1.8%)50.0%prior 6
Distracted6 (1.2%)20.0%prior 5
Made an improper turn5 (1%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in 'Clear' weather conditions increased by 17 counts, from 334 in October 2023 to 351 in October 2024. Crashes in 'Rain' conditions decreased by 22 counts, from 35 to 13, while 'Dry' road surface crashes increased by 50 counts, from 424 to 474. Crashes in 'Daylight' conditions increased by 41 counts, from 313 to 354, whereas those in 'Dark - lighted roadway' decreased by 19 counts, from 142 to 123.

Weather

Clear351 (69.6%)
5.1%prior 334
Clear/Clear104 (20.6%)
67.7%prior 62
Cloudy19 (3.8%)
-50.0%prior 38
Rain13 (2.6%)
-62.9%prior 35
Cloudy/Rain8 (1.6%)
-33.3%prior 12
Clear/Cloudy5 (1.0%)
0.0%prior 5
Rain/Cloudy2 (0.4%)
Clear/Rain1 (0.2%)
Snow1 (0.2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight354 (70.4%)
13.1%prior 313
Dark - lighted roadway123 (24.5%)
-13.4%prior 142
Dusk15 (3.0%)
-16.7%prior 18
Dawn5 (1.0%)
-28.6%prior 7
Dark - roadway not lighted4 (0.8%)
-42.9%prior 7
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (0.4%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry474 (94.4%)
11.8%prior 424
Wet27 (5.4%)
-56.5%prior 62
Ice1 (0.2%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 53, from 986 in October 2023 to 1039 in October 2024. Toyota and Honda both saw an increase of 14 vehicles involved, while Ford saw a decrease of 9 vehicles involved, from 88 to 79. Subaru also saw a decrease of 11 vehicles involved, from 60 to 49.

Top Vehicle Makes (1,039 vehicles)

1
TOYOTA195 (18.8%)
7.7%prior 181
2
HONDA130 (12.5%)
12.1%prior 116
3
FORD79 (7.6%)
-10.2%prior 88
4
NISSAN71 (6.8%)
4.4%prior 68
5
CHEVROLET59 (5.7%)
-1.7%prior 60
6
SUBARU49 (4.7%)
-18.3%prior 60
7
HYUNDAI47 (4.5%)
46.9%prior 32
8
JEEP41 (3.9%)
-2.4%prior 42
9
KIA24 (2.3%)
0.0%prior 24
10
BMW21 (2%)
75.0%prior 12

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Vehicle unit records

247 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (1,014 persons with recorded sex)

Male568 (56.0%)
8.4%prior 524
Female443 (43.7%)
-2.6%prior 455
X / Unspecified3 (0.3%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in 30 mph speed zones significantly increased from 99 in October 2023 to 303 in October 2024, with 1 fatal crash occurring in this zone in the current period compared to 0 in the prior. Crashes in 50 mph zones decreased from 32 to 25, but 1 fatal crash occurred in this zone in October 2024 compared to 0 in October 2023.

Fatal crashes by zone: 30 mph: 1 of 303 (0.33%) · 50 mph: 1 of 25 (4%)

Source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV) · Arcgis_yearly Open Data · 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · 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: 2024-10-01 through 2024-10-31
  • Report generated: June 21, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2024-10-01 through 2024-10-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: WORCESTER, MA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 513
  • Total persons involved: 1,291
  • Total vehicles involved: 1,039

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: October 2024." Published June 21, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31. Data source: Massachusetts Crash Data (MassDOT CDV), Arcgis_yearly Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/worcester/october-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

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Worcester, MA Crash Report — October 2024 | ThatCarHitMe.com