Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

880 CRASHES IN
VERMONT, VT
DECEMBER 2018

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2017

In December 2018, there were 880 total crashes, a 52.6% decrease from the 1,858 crashes recorded in December 2017. Despite this significant drop in overall collisions, the number of fatalities increased from 3 to 9 year-over-year.

880

-52.6%was 1,858

Total Crash Events

9

200.0%was 3

Fatal Crashes

178

-16.0%was 212

Injury Crashes

9

200.0%was 3

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 · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The total number of crashes saw a substantial year-over-year decrease, falling by 52.6% from 1,858 in December 2017 to 880 in December 2018. Total injuries also declined by 16%, from 212 to 178. In contrast to this downward trend in crash and injury volume, total fatalities tripled, increasing from 3 to 9.

When Crashes Happen

Temporal crash patterns remained consistent year-over-year, with Friday being the peak day and 5 PM the peak hour in both December 2017 and December 2018. However, the overall volume of crashes was significantly lower in the current period across all days and hours. For instance, the peak hour of 5 PM saw 82 crashes in December 2018, compared to 167 during the same hour in the prior year.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the absolute number of crashes dropped, their severity increased proportionally year-over-year. The fatal crash rate rose significantly from 0.16% in December 2017 to 1.02% in December 2018, with fatalities tripling from 3 to 9. The proportion of crashes resulting in any injury also increased, accounting for 20.2% of all collisions in the current period compared to 11.4% in the prior year.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal9fatal crashes1%
200.0%prior 3
Injury178minor injury crashes20.2%
-16.0%prior 212
No Injury693no injury crashes78.8%
-35.8%prior 1,080

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

A stark difference in road and weather conditions appears to be a major factor in the year-over-year crash volume change. In December 2017, "Snow" was the most frequent road surface condition, present in 477 crashes, whereas in December 2018, this number fell to just 90. Similarly, crashes during "Freezing Precipitation" dropped from 423 to 128, while crashes on "Dry" roads were more frequent in the current period, with 425 incidents compared to 309 in the prior year.

Weather

Clear375 (50.1%)
-8.5%prior 410
Cloudy201 (26.9%)
-15.9%prior 239
Freezing Precipitation128 (17.1%)
-69.7%prior 423
Rain43 (5.7%)
65.4%prior 26
Wind1 (0.1%)
-80.0%prior 5

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight628 (72.2%)
-53.3%prior 1,345
Dark242 (27.8%)
-52.4%prior 508

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry425 (56.5%)
37.5%prior 309
Wet135 (18.0%)
6.3%prior 127
Snow90 (12.0%)
-81.1%prior 477
Ice74 (9.8%)
-42.6%prior 129
Slush19 (2.5%)
-48.6%prior 37
Other - Explain in Narrative7 (0.9%)
-12.5%prior 8
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel2 (0.3%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31 · 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: 2018-12-01 through 2018-12-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2018-12-01 through 2018-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: vermont, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 880

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 2018." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/statewide/december-2018-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 2018 | ThatCarHitMe.com