Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

783 CRASHES IN
SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT
2015

All metrics benchmarked against2014

In 2015, South Burlington recorded 783 total crashes, a 9.8% decrease from the 868 crashes reported in 2014. The most significant year-over-year change was the reduction in traffic fatalities, which dropped from two in the prior period to zero in the current period.

783

-9.8%was 868

Total Crash Events

0

-100.0%was 2

Fatal Crashes

57

-8.1%was 62

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. 57 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic crash trends in South Burlington showed a decline between 2014 and 2015. Total crashes decreased by 9.8%, from 868 to 783. Similarly, the number of persons injured fell from 62 to 57, and fatalities were eliminated, dropping from two to zero.

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained consistent year-over-year. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both 2015 (152 crashes) and 2014 (190 crashes). Similarly, the noon hour (12 p.m.) was the peak hour in both periods, with 73 crashes in 2015 and 82 in 2014. While the overall volume of crashes decreased, the days and times at which they were most likely to occur did not change.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crash severity improved from 2014 to 2015, with fatal crashes decreasing from two to zero. The number of injury-involved crashes also saw a slight reduction from 62 to 57. As a proportion of all incidents, injury crashes remained relatively stable, accounting for 7.1% of crashes in 2014 and 7.3% in 2015.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Injury57minor injury crashes7.3%
-8.1%prior 62
No Injury669no injury crashes85.4%
-13.3%prior 772

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

The distribution of crashes across different environmental conditions showed some shifts between the two periods. The proportion of crashes occurring in daylight increased from 79.6% in 2014 to 84.4% in 2015, with a corresponding decrease in crashes occurring in darkness. Crashes on wet roads decreased as a percentage of the total, from 12.4% to 8.6%. However, the breakdown of crashes by weather condition, such as 'Clear' or 'Cloudy', remained stable year-over-year.

Weather

Clear403 (65.6%)
-9.6%prior 446
Cloudy149 (24.3%)
-10.2%prior 166
Freezing Precipitation32 (5.2%)
-42.9%prior 56
Rain30 (4.9%)
-42.3%prior 52

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight661 (84.6%)
-4.3%prior 691
Dark120 (15.4%)
-29.4%prior 170

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry470 (77.3%)
-7.7%prior 509
Wet67 (11.0%)
-38.0%prior 108
Snow48 (7.9%)
-25.0%prior 64
Ice19 (3.1%)
-5.0%prior 20
Slush3 (0.5%)
-40.0%prior 5
Other - Explain in Narrative1 (0.2%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31 · 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: 2015-01-01 through 2015-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2015-01-01 through 2015-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: South Burlington, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 783

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). "South Burlington, VT Crash Intelligence Report: 2015." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/south-burlington/2015-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

South Burlington, VT Crash Report — 2015 | ThatCarHitMe.com