Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

143 CRASHES IN
ESSEX, VT
2022

All metrics benchmarked against2021

In 2022, Essex recorded 143 total crashes, a decrease of 80 crashes or 35.87% compared to the 223 crashes reported in 2021. This significant reduction in overall crash incidents marks the most notable year-over-year shift.

143

-35.9%was 223

Total Crash Events

0

-100.0%was 1

Fatal Crashes

49

28.9%was 38

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 · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash incidents in Essex decreased year-over-year, with total crashes falling by 35.87% from 223 in 2021 to 143 in 2022. Fatalities also saw a positive trend, decreasing from 1 in 2021 to 0 in 2022. However, total injuries increased by 28.95%, rising from 38 in 2021 to 49 in 2022.

When Crashes Happen

Temporal patterns show a shift in peak crash times, with the peak day moving from Tuesday in 2021 (44 crashes) to Friday in 2022 (28 crashes). Similarly, the peak hour for crashes shifted from 1p in 2021 (23 crashes) to 3p in 2022 (15 crashes). Notably, Saturday was the only day to see an increase in crashes, rising from 18 in 2021 to 22 in 2022.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Fatal crashes decreased from 1 in 2021 to 0 in 2022, indicating an improvement in the most severe outcomes. However, the number of injury crashes increased from 38 in 2021 to 49 in 2022, representing a rise of 28.95%. The proportion of injury crashes relative to total crashes also significantly increased, from 17% in 2021 to 34.3% in 2022.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Injury49minor injury crashes34.3%
28.9%prior 38
No Injury94no injury crashes65.7%
-17.5%prior 114

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

While crashes in clear weather and on dry roads decreased, there was a notable increase in crashes occurring under adverse conditions. Crashes during freezing precipitation rose from 13 in 2021 to 20 in 2022, and those on wet road surfaces increased from 24 to 34. Crashes on snow-covered roads more than tripled, from 6 in 2021 to 19 in 2022, and crashes on ice increased from 0 to 3.

Weather

Clear84 (60.9%)
-17.6%prior 102
Cloudy25 (18.1%)
-3.8%prior 26
Freezing Precipitation20 (14.5%)
53.8%prior 13
Rain9 (6.5%)
28.6%prior 7

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight104 (72.7%)
-42.5%prior 181
Dark39 (27.3%)
-2.5%prior 40

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry76 (55.9%)
-30.9%prior 110
Wet34 (25.0%)
41.7%prior 24
Snow19 (14.0%)
216.7%prior 6
Ice3 (2.2%)
Slush2 (1.5%)
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel1 (0.7%)
Other - Explain in Narrative1 (0.7%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · 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: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: Essex, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 143

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: 2022." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/essex/2022-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 — 2022 | ThatCarHitMe.com