Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

460 CRASHES IN
BENNINGTON, VT
2017

All metrics benchmarked against2016

Total crashes for the current year (2017) were 460, compared to 520 in the prior year (2016). This represents an 11.54% decrease in total crashes year-over-year. The most notable shift was a 50% reduction in total fatalities, decreasing from 2 in the prior year to 1 in the current year. Total injuries also decreased by 14.47%, from 76 to 65.

460

-11.5%was 520

Total Crash Events

1

-50.0%was 2

Fatal Crashes

65

-14.5%was 76

Injury Crashes

1

-50.0%was 2

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons. 1 crash with unreported severity is not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash data for the current year shows a declining trend compared to the prior year. Total crashes decreased by 11.54%, from 520 to 460. Fatalities saw a significant 50% reduction, dropping from 2 to 1, while total injuries also decreased by 14.47%, from 76 to 65.

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes remained Friday in both periods, though the number of crashes on Fridays decreased from 102 in the prior year to 84 in the current year. The peak hour for crashes shifted from 12 p.m. in the prior year (51 crashes) to 3 p.m. in the current year (39 crashes). This indicates a change in the highest crash frequency hour, alongside a general reduction in peak crash volumes.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The number of fatal crashes decreased by 50% year-over-year, from 2 in the prior period to 1 in the current period, with the fatal crash rate decreasing from 0.38% to 0.22%. Injury crashes also decreased in count from 76 to 65, and their proportion of total crashes slightly decreased from 14.6% to 14.1%. Conversely, the proportion of no-injury crashes slightly increased from 84.8% to 85.4%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal1fatal crashes0.2%
-50.0%prior 2
Injury65minor injury crashes14.1%
-14.5%prior 76
No Injury393no injury crashes85.4%
-10.9%prior 441

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in "Clear" weather decreased by 42 incidents, from 321 to 279, while crashes during "Freezing Precipitation" decreased by 13, from 44 to 31. Crashes on "Dry" road surfaces saw a reduction of 57 incidents, from 390 to 333. Conversely, crashes on "Slush" road surfaces increased from 2 in the prior year to 10 in the current year.

Weather

Clear279 (62.3%)
-13.1%prior 321
Cloudy105 (23.4%)
-0.9%prior 106
Rain33 (7.4%)
0.0%prior 33
Freezing Precipitation31 (6.9%)
-29.5%prior 44

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight349 (75.9%)
-14.5%prior 408
Dark111 (24.1%)
-0.9%prior 112

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry333 (73.7%)
-14.6%prior 390
Wet67 (14.8%)
-10.7%prior 75
Snow31 (6.9%)
3.3%prior 30
Slush10 (2.2%)
Ice9 (2.0%)
-25.0%prior 12
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel1 (0.2%)
Other - Explain in Narrative1 (0.2%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Data Sources & Methodology

Primary Data Source

All crash data in this report is sourced from Vermont Crash Data, accessed programmatically via the Arcgis 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 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: 2017-01-01 through 2017-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2017-01-01 through 2017-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: Bennington, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 460

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). "Bennington, VT Crash Intelligence Report: 2017." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/bennington/2017-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

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Bennington, VT Crash Report — 2017 | ThatCarHitMe.com