Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

770 CRASHES IN
VERMONT, VT
AUGUST 2020

All metrics benchmarked againstAugust 2019

In August 2020, there were 770 total traffic crashes, a 26.2% decrease from the 1,044 crashes recorded in August 2019. Despite this significant drop in overall collisions, the number of fatalities increased from 7 to 9 year-over-year. The most notable shift was this rise in fatalities and the fatal crash rate, which occurred alongside a substantial reduction in total crashes and injuries.

770

-26.2%was 1,044

Total Crash Events

9

28.6%was 7

Fatal Crashes

138

-27.0%was 189

Injury Crashes

9

28.6%was 7

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons. 248 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend in traffic collisions shows a significant year-over-year decrease. Total crashes fell from 1,044 in August 2019 to 770 in August 2020, and the number of people injured decreased from 189 to 138. However, this downward trend did not extend to crash severity, as total fatalities rose from 7 to 9 over the same period.

When Crashes Happen

Fridays remained the most common day for crashes in both August 2020 (133 crashes) and August 2019 (222 crashes). However, the peak hour for collisions shifted, moving from the 4 p.m. hour in 2019 (88 crashes) to the 1 p.m. hour in 2020 (68 crashes). While Fridays saw the highest volume in both periods, the distribution of crashes across other weekdays was more even in 2020 compared to the prior year.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes declined, their severity increased year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes rose from 7 in August 2019 to 9 in August 2020, and the fatal crash rate increased from 0.67% to 1.17% of all crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in any injury remained stable, accounting for 17.9% of collisions in August 2020 compared to 18.1% in the prior year.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal9fatal crashes1.2%
28.6%prior 7
Injury138minor injury crashes17.9%
-27.0%prior 189
No Injury375no injury crashes48.7%
-34.9%prior 576

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

The distribution of crashes across different environmental conditions remained largely consistent year-over-year. In both August 2020 and August 2019, the vast majority of incidents occurred in daylight (79.2% and 77.7% respectively) and on dry roads (89.9% and 89.4% respectively). There were no significant shifts in the proportion of crashes occurring in adverse lighting, weather, or road surface conditions between the two periods.

Weather

Clear337 (79.7%)
-29.8%prior 480
Cloudy55 (13.0%)
-5.2%prior 58
Rain31 (7.3%)
-22.5%prior 40

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight606 (79.2%)
-24.5%prior 803
Dark159 (20.8%)
-30.9%prior 230

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry384 (89.9%)
-26.3%prior 521
Wet38 (8.9%)
-24.0%prior 50
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel3 (0.7%)
-50.0%prior 6
Water (standing / moving)2 (0.5%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31 · 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: 2020-08-01 through 2020-08-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-08-01 through 2020-08-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: vermont, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 770

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). "vermont, VT Crash Intelligence Report: August 2020." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/statewide/august-2020-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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Vermont (Statewide) Crash Report — August 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com