Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

551 CRASHES IN
SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT
2020

All metrics benchmarked against2019

Total crashes in South Burlington decreased by 45.8% from 1016 in 2019 to 551 in 2020. A notable shift was the increase in fatal crashes, rising from 0 in 2019 to 3 in 2020.

551

-45.8%was 1,016

Total Crash Events

3

Fatal Crashes

41

-50.0%was 82

Injury Crashes

3

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons. 40 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 South Burlington saw a significant decline, decreasing by 45.8% from 1016 crashes in 2019 to 551 crashes in 2020. Despite this reduction in total incidents, fatalities increased from 0 in 2019 to 3 in 2020, while total injuries decreased by 50% from 82 to 41.

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes shifted from Tuesday in 2019 (183 crashes) to Wednesday in 2020 (106 crashes). The peak hour for crashes remained 4 PM in both years, although the number of crashes at this hour significantly decreased from 108 in 2019 to 61 in 2020.

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

Fatal crashes increased from 0 in 2019 to 3 in 2020, accounting for 0.5% of all crashes in 2020. Injury crashes decreased in count from 82 in 2019 to 41 in 2020, and their proportion of total crashes slightly decreased from 8.1% to 7.4%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal3fatal crashes0.5%
Injury41minor injury crashes7.4%
-50.0%prior 82
No Injury467no injury crashes84.8%
-46.5%prior 873

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 adverse weather conditions, such as freezing precipitation and rain, decreased in count from 68 to 27 and 44 to 16, respectively. Similarly, crashes on adverse road surfaces like snow and ice also saw reductions, decreasing from 64 to 30 for snow and 19 to 5 for ice.

Weather

Clear256 (69.6%)
-43.7%prior 455
Cloudy68 (18.5%)
-35.8%prior 106
Freezing Precipitation27 (7.3%)
-60.3%prior 68
Rain16 (4.3%)
-63.6%prior 44
Wind1 (0.3%)

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

Lighting

Daylight457 (83.1%)
-46.9%prior 861
Dark93 (16.9%)
-38.8%prior 152

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

Road Surface

Dry289 (76.3%)
-42.0%prior 498
Wet52 (13.7%)
-42.2%prior 90
Snow30 (7.9%)
-53.1%prior 64
Ice5 (1.3%)
-73.7%prior 19
Slush2 (0.5%)
Other - Explain in Narrative1 (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: South Burlington, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 551

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: 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/south-burlington/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

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South Burlington, VT Crash Report — 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com