Background

Highlights about Massachusetts Vehicle Crashes

Massachusetts has more reported crashes per mile than the national average, but crashes here are much less likely to be fatal than in almost any other state — in fact, Massachusetts ranks best in the U.S. for the lowest fatalities per mile.

Massachusetts first issued Driver’s Licenses in 1903. In 1920 Massachusetts became the first state in the country to require a test to get Driver’s License. The table below shows data from 1920 to 1925. Note the large increase in the number of registered vehicles. Also note that Massachusetts deaths per driven mile was higher than the national average but also decreased from over 32 deaths per 100 million Vehicle-Miles-Driven (VMT) in 1920 to 18.7 in 1925.

Year	U.S. fatalities	US Fatalities per 100M VMT	Mass Fatality / 100M VMT	MA Fatalities	MA VMT (Millions)	MA Reg Vehicles	MA Avg Miles / Year
1920	12,155	25.54	32.10	454	1414.21	289641	5151.98
1921	13,253	24.08	27.65	523	1891.62	372780	5243.83
1922	14,859	21.95	23.34	496	2124.8	395278	5515.66
1923	17,870	21.02	22.86	611	2673.03	485983	5628.02
1924	18,400	17.55	20.12	685	3405.42	582893	5952.33
1925	20,771	16.98	18.70	729	3898.36	649253	6096.41

Now compare the table above to the table below with data from 1975 to 2024. Notice that Massachusetts has a lower fatality rate per VMT than the national average. This continues from 1975 to 2024. Today Massachusetts has the lowest fatality per VMT of any state in the USA. Also note the increase in the number of vehicles and and total miles driven in in MA VMT. Comparing 2024 to 1975, Massachusetts has doubled VMT and decreased the death rate per VMT by almost 80%.

Year	U.S. fatalities	US Fatalities per 100M VMT	Mass Fatality / 100M VMT	MA Fatalities	MA VMT (Billions)	MA Reg Vehicles	MA Avg Miles / Year
1975	45,500	3.43	2.78	864	31.028	3188300	9,732
1976	45,523	3.25	2.44	789	32.397	3273117	9,898
1977	47,878	3.26	2.05	744	36.338	3605882	10,078
1978	50,331	3.26	2.28	861	37.842	3719718	10,173
1979	51,093	3.34	2.45	917	37.473	3822193	9,804
1980	51,091	3.35	2.49	881	35.39	3849858	9,193
1981	49,301	3.17	2.08	746	35.948	3875665	9,275
1982	43,945	2.76	1.8	659	36.666	3916664	9,362
1983	42,589	2.58	1.73	651	37.58	3952304	9,508
1984	44,377	2.58	1.73	666	38.537	3888836	9,910
1985	43,825	2.47	1.87	742	39.696	3856878	10,292
1986	46,087	2.51	1.84	752	40.92	3957545	10,340
1987	46,390	2.41	1.63	689	42.305	3998722	10,580
1988	47,087	2.32	1.67	725	43.334	3880043	11,168
1989	45,582	2.17	1.51	696	46.214	3862109	11,966
1990	44,599	2.08	1.31	605	46.177	3781528	12,211
1991	41,508	1.91	1.19	552	46.537	3717492	12,518
1992	39,250	1.75	1.02	485	47.348	3726391	12,706
1993	40,150	1.75	1.02	475	46.684	3905963	11,952
1994	40,716	1.73	0.94	440	46.99	4092787	11,481
1995	41,817	1.73	0.92	444	48.053	4576212	10,501
1996	42,065	1.69	0.83	417	49.956	4827308	10,349
1997	42,013	1.65	0.87	441	50.468	5159232	9,782
1998	41,501	1.58	0.78	406	51.829	5258751	9,856
1999	41,717	1.55	0.8	414	51.82	5436298	9,532
2000	41,945	1.53	0.82	433	52.796	5372117	9,828
2001	42,196	1.51	0.9	477	53.015	5313186	9,978
2002	43,005	1.51	0.86	459	53.266	5536509	9,621
2003	42,884	1.48	0.86	462	53.709	5609749	9,574
2004	42,836	1.44	0.87	476	54.771	5593154	9,793
2005	43,510	1.46	0.8	441	55.458	5560002	9,974
2006	42,708	1.42	0.78	429	55.136	5529068	9,972
2007	41,059	1.35	0.79	434	55.071	5511166	9,993
2008	37,261	1.25	0.67	364	54.505	5481793	9,943
2009	33,883	1.15	0.62	340	54.812	5420020	10,113
2010	32,999	1.11	0.64	347	54.362	5492915	9,897
2011	32,479	1.1	0.68	374	54.792	5695327	9,620
2012	33,782	1.14	0.68	383	55.94	4949859	11,301
2013	32,894	1.1	0.62	351	56.311	4985448	11,295
2014	32,744	1.08	0.62	354	57.552	4994440	11,523
2015	35,484	1.15	0.58	344	59.257	5069601	11,689
2016	37,806	1.19	0.63	387	61.825	5069559	12,195
2017	37,473	1.17	0.55	347	62.66	5065221	12,371
2018	36,835	1.14	0.53	355	66.772	5061498	13,192
2019	36,355	1.11	0.52	336	64.89	5061260	12,821
2020	39,007	1.34	0.63	343	54.127	5036686	10,747
2021	43,230	1.38	0.7	413	59.115	5207052	11,353
2022	42,721	1.34	0.76	435	56.949	5184450	10,985
2023	40,901	1.26	0.56	342	60.748	5239321	11,595
2024	39,254	1.19	0.59	363	62.013	5094689	12,172