Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

497 CRASHES IN
BENNINGTON, VT
2018

All metrics benchmarked against2017

Total crashes in Bennington in 2018 were 497, an 8.04% increase from the 460 crashes recorded in 2017. A notable positive shift was observed in fatalities, which decreased from 1 in 2017 to 0 in 2018.

497

8.0%was 460

Total Crash Events

0

-100.0%was 1

Fatal Crashes

60

-7.7%was 65

Injury Crashes

0

-100.0%was 1

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, total crashes in Bennington increased by 8.04% year-over-year, from 460 in 2017 to 497 in 2018. Despite this rise in total incidents, total fatalities decreased from 1 in 2017 to 0 in 2018, and total injuries also saw a decrease of 7.69%, from 65 to 60.

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns for crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with Friday continuing as the peak day for crashes, increasing from 84 in 2017 to 95 in 2018. The peak hour for crashes also remained 3 PM, with crash counts rising from 39 in 2017 to 44 in 2018.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes saw a notable improvement, with total fatalities decreasing from 1 in 2017 to 0 in 2018. Injury crashes decreased by 5 incidents, from 65 in 2017 to 60 in 2018, resulting in a reduction of their proportion from 14.1% to 12.1% of total crashes. Conversely, crashes resulting in no injuries increased from 393 (85.4%) in 2017 to 437 (87.9%) in 2018.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Injury60minor injury crashes12.1%
-7.7%prior 65
No Injury437no injury crashes87.9%
11.2%prior 393

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in adverse weather conditions saw an increase year-over-year, with incidents during Freezing Precipitation rising from 31 in 2017 to 55 in 2018. Crashes on snowy road surfaces also increased significantly from 31 in 2017 to 53 in 2018. Daylight conditions continued to account for the majority of crashes, increasing from 349 in 2017 to 374 in 2018.

Weather

Clear303 (61.5%)
8.6%prior 279
Cloudy101 (20.5%)
-3.8%prior 105
Freezing Precipitation55 (11.2%)
77.4%prior 31
Rain32 (6.5%)
-3.0%prior 33
Wind2 (0.4%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight374 (75.3%)
7.2%prior 349
Dark123 (24.7%)
10.8%prior 111

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry346 (70.8%)
3.9%prior 333
Wet71 (14.5%)
6.0%prior 67
Snow53 (10.8%)
71.0%prior 31
Ice9 (1.8%)
0.0%prior 9
Slush6 (1.2%)
-40.0%prior 10
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel2 (0.4%)
Other - Explain in Narrative2 (0.4%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · 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: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: Bennington, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 497

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: 2018." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/bennington/2018-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 — 2018 | ThatCarHitMe.com