Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,858 CRASHES IN
VERMONT, VT
DECEMBER 2017

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2016

In December 2017, Vermont recorded 1,858 total traffic crashes, a 16.4% increase from the 1,596 crashes reported in December 2016. Despite the rise in total incidents, the number of fatalities fell by 50%, from six in the prior period to three in the current period. The total number of injuries also saw a decrease of 10.5% year-over-year.

1,858

▲ 16.4%was 1,596

Total Crash Events

3

▼ -50.0%was 6

Fatal Crashes

212

▼ -10.5%was 237

Injury Crashes

3

▼ -50.0%was 6

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons. 563 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data indicates a rising trend in the total number of crashes, with a 16.4% increase from 1,596 in December 2016 to 1,858 in December 2017. Conversely, the outcomes of these crashes became less severe. Fatalities decreased from six to three, and total injuries declined from 237 to 212 during the same period.

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between December 2016 and December 2017. The day with the highest number of incidents moved from Thursday (324 crashes) in the prior year to Friday (423 crashes) in the current year. Similarly, the peak hour for crashes shifted from 12 PM in 2016, with 129 incidents, to the 5 PM hour in 2017, which saw 167 crashes.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crashes in December 2017 were proportionally less severe than in the previous year. The percentage of crashes resulting in a fatality decreased from 0.4% to 0.2% of all incidents. Similarly, the share of crashes involving injuries dropped from 14.8% in December 2016 to 11.4% in December 2017, indicating that a smaller proportion of incidents resulted in injury or death.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal3fatal crashes0.2%
↓-50.0%prior 6
Injury212minor injury crashes11.4%
↓-10.5%prior 237
No Injury1,080no injury crashes58.1%
↑10.0%prior 982

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

Driving conditions were more adverse in December 2017 compared to the same month in 2016. The most common weather condition during crashes shifted from 'Clear' (413 incidents) in the prior year to 'Freezing Precipitation' (423 incidents) in the current year. Correspondingly, the dominant road surface condition changed from 'Dry' (384 crashes) to 'Snow' (477 crashes), suggesting a link between the increase in total crashes and worsening conditions.

Weather

Freezing Precipitation423 (38.3%)
↑9.9%prior 385
Clear410 (37.2%)
↓-0.7%prior 413
Cloudy239 (21.7%)
↓-10.5%prior 267
Rain26 (2.4%)
↓-7.1%prior 28
Wind5 (0.5%)
↓-37.5%prior 8

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight1,345 (72.6%)
↑12.9%prior 1,191
Dark508 (27.4%)
↑29.3%prior 393

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Snow477 (43.7%)
↑33.2%prior 358
Dry309 (28.3%)
↓-19.5%prior 384
Ice129 (11.8%)
↓-2.3%prior 132
Wet127 (11.6%)
↓-31.0%prior 184
Slush37 (3.4%)
↓-17.8%prior 45
Other - Explain in Narrative8 (0.7%)
Water (standing / moving)3 (0.3%)
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel2 (0.2%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31 · 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: 2017-12-01 through 2017-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2017-12-01 through 2017-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: vermont, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,858

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: December 2017." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2017-12-01 to 2017-12-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/statewide/december-2017-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 — December 2017 | ThatCarHitMe.com