Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

546 CRASHES IN
ESSEX, VT
2018

All metrics benchmarked against2017

Total crashes in Essex increased by 9.2%, rising from 500 in the prior year to 546 in the current year. The most notable year-over-year shift was the significant increase in DUI-related crashes, which more than doubled from 7 in the prior year to 15 in the current year. Despite the overall increase in incidents, fatalities were eliminated, dropping from 2 in the prior year to 0 in the current year.

546

▲ 9.2%was 500

Total Crash Events

0

▼ -100.0%was 2

Fatal Crashes

54

▲ 68.8%was 32

Injury Crashes

0

▼ -100.0%was 2

Fatal Crash Events

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

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, crash incidents in Essex showed an upward trend, with total crashes increasing by 9.2% year-over-year, from 500 to 546. Despite this rise in overall crashes, the number of fatalities decreased by 100%, moving from 2 in the prior year to 0 in the current year. Conversely, total injuries increased significantly by 68.8%, from 32 to 54.

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes remained Tuesday in both periods, with counts rising from 87 in the prior year to 100 in the current year. However, the peak crash hour shifted from 3 PM with 52 crashes in the prior year to 12 PM with 50 crashes in the current year. Monthly crash distribution also saw shifts, with the current year showing higher counts in winter months compared to the prior year.

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

Fatal crashes saw a 100% reduction, decreasing from 2 in the prior year to 0 in the current year, leading to a fatal crash rate of 0%. Concurrently, injury crashes increased substantially from 32 to 54, raising their proportion of total crashes from 6.4% in the prior year to 9.9% in the current year. The number of no-injury crashes also increased from 465 to 492.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Injury54minor injury crashes9.9%
↑68.8%prior 32
No Injury492no injury crashes90.1%
↑5.8%prior 465

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 clear weather decreased from 252 to 214, while those in cloudy conditions increased from 85 to 115. Crashes involving freezing precipitation rose from 33 to 50, and those on ice-covered roads nearly doubled from 5 to 9. Crashes occurring in dark conditions also increased, from 72 in the prior year to 95 in the current year.

Weather

Clear214 (51.2%)
↓-15.1%prior 252
Cloudy115 (27.5%)
↑35.3%prior 85
Freezing Precipitation50 (12.0%)
↑51.5%prior 33
Rain38 (9.1%)
↑5.6%prior 36
Wind1 (0.2%)

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

Lighting

Daylight420 (81.6%)
↑3.2%prior 407
Dark95 (18.4%)
↑31.9%prior 72

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

Road Surface

Dry274 (68.3%)
↓-3.5%prior 284
Wet70 (17.5%)
↑2.9%prior 68
Snow42 (10.5%)
↑7.7%prior 39
Ice9 (2.2%)
↑80.0%prior 5
Slush3 (0.7%)
Other - Explain in Narrative2 (0.5%)
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel1 (0.2%)

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: Essex, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 546

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). "Essex, 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/essex/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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Essex, VT Crash Report — 2018 | ThatCarHitMe.com