Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

657 CRASHES IN
VERMONT, VT
MARCH 2021

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2020

In March 2021, Vermont recorded 657 total traffic crashes, a 2.1% decrease from the 671 crashes documented in March 2020. While the overall crash volume saw a slight decline, the number of fatalities doubled from one to two. A notable shift in collision type was a 64.2% increase in rear-end crashes, which rose from 53 incidents in the prior year to 87 in the current period.

657

▼ -2.1%was 671

Total Crash Events

2

▲ 100.0%was 1

Fatal Crashes

87

▲ 6.1%was 82

Injury Crashes

2

▲ 100.0%was 1

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons. 216 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash totals in Vermont remained relatively stable, with a slight 2.1% decrease from 671 incidents in March 2020 to 657 in March 2021. Despite this minor drop in total crashes, the severity of outcomes increased. The number of injuries rose by 6.1% from 82 to 87, and total fatalities doubled from one to two year-over-year.

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed some shifts between March 2020 and March 2021. While Monday remained the peak day for crashes in both periods, the number of Monday crashes decreased from 158 to 120. The peak hour for collisions shifted two hours earlier, moving from 5 p.m. in 2020 (with 55 crashes) to 3 p.m. in 2021 (with 63 crashes).

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes increased in March 2021 compared to the previous year. The number of fatal crashes doubled from one to two, and the number of crashes resulting in injury increased from 82 to 87. As a share of all crashes, the fatal crash rate increased from 0.15% to 0.3%, while the proportion of crashes involving an injury rose from 12.2% to 13.2%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal2fatal crashes0.3%
↑100.0%prior 1
Injury87minor injury crashes13.2%
↑6.1%prior 82
No Injury352no injury crashes53.6%
↑4.1%prior 338

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes in March 2021 occurred under clearer conditions compared to the same month in the prior year. The proportion of collisions happening in the dark decreased from 33.6% to 25.8% of reported incidents. Crashes on non-dry surfaces like wet, snow, or ice dropped from 33.5% to 16.3% of crashes with reported road conditions. This trend was also observed in weather, where crashes in adverse weather (not 'Clear') decreased from 37.7% to 20.9% of crashes with reported weather data.

Weather

Clear280 (79.1%)
↑43.6%prior 195
Cloudy40 (11.3%)
↓-27.3%prior 55
Freezing Precipitation16 (4.5%)
↓-65.2%prior 46
Rain13 (3.7%)
↓-18.8%prior 16
Wind5 (1.4%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight485 (74.2%)
↑10.5%prior 439
Dark169 (25.8%)
↓-23.9%prior 222

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry298 (83.7%)
↑43.3%prior 208
Wet24 (6.7%)
↓-42.9%prior 42
Snow17 (4.8%)
↓-52.8%prior 36
Ice12 (3.4%)
↓-20.0%prior 15
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel3 (0.8%)
Other - Explain in Narrative1 (0.3%)
Water (standing / moving)1 (0.3%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · 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: 2021-03-01 through 2021-03-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2021-03-01 through 2021-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: vermont, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 657

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: March 2021." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/statewide/march-2021-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

Vermont (Statewide) Crash Report — March 2021 | ThatCarHitMe.com