Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

380 CRASHES IN
COLCHESTER, VT
2020

All metrics benchmarked against2019

In Colchester, total crashes increased from 290 in 2019 to 380 in 2020, representing a 31.03% rise year-over-year. Despite this increase in total incidents, the number of injuries decreased by 38.16%, from 76 in 2019 to 47 in 2020. Fatalities remained constant at 1 for both years.

380

31.0%was 290

Total Crash Events

1

Fatal Crashes

47

-38.2%was 76

Injury Crashes

1

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons. 34 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash incidents in Colchester show a rising trend, with total crashes increasing by 31.03% from 290 in the prior year to 380 in the current year. Conversely, total injuries experienced a notable decline of 38.16%, falling from 76 to 47. Fatalities remained stable year-over-year, with 1 fatality recorded in both periods.

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Thursday, which had 52 crashes in the prior year, to Friday, which recorded 74 crashes in the current year. Similarly, the peak hour for crashes changed from 5 PM with 34 crashes in the prior year to 4 PM with 36 crashes in the current year.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity distribution of crashes saw notable shifts year-over-year. While the number of fatal crashes remained constant at 1 for both periods, the fatal crash rate decreased from 0.34% in the prior year to 0.26% in the current year. Injury crashes decreased significantly as a proportion of total crashes, falling from 26.2% in the prior year to 12.4% in the current year. Concurrently, crashes resulting in no injury increased substantially, accounting for 78.4% of all crashes in the current year compared to 51.4% in the prior year.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal1fatal crashes0.3%
0.0%prior 1
Injury47minor injury crashes12.4%
-38.2%prior 76
No Injury298no injury crashes78.4%
100.0%prior 149

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather increased from 142 in the prior year to 228 in the current year, while crashes in rainy conditions decreased from 20 to 16. Incidents on dry road surfaces significantly increased from 146 to 248 year-over-year. Conversely, crashes on wet road surfaces decreased from 44 to 36, and those on icy surfaces decreased from 11 to 8.

Weather

Clear228 (69.5%)
60.6%prior 142
Cloudy46 (14.0%)
39.4%prior 33
Freezing Precipitation38 (11.6%)
58.3%prior 24
Rain16 (4.9%)
-20.0%prior 20

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight284 (74.9%)
36.5%prior 208
Dark95 (25.1%)
15.9%prior 82

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry248 (73.8%)
69.9%prior 146
Wet36 (10.7%)
-18.2%prior 44
Snow33 (9.8%)
135.7%prior 14
Ice8 (2.4%)
-27.3%prior 11
Other - Explain in Narrative7 (2.1%)
Slush3 (0.9%)
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel1 (0.3%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · 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: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31 (366 days)
  • Geographic scope: Colchester, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 380

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). "Colchester, VT Crash Intelligence Report: 2020." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/colchester/2020-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

ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company

Colchester, VT Crash Report — 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com