🧑Background on the Data Cruncher

Hello! My name’s Samantha LeBlanc, and I’m a board member of Malden Safe Streets.  My main focus is looking at crash reports, specifically those involving vulnerable people (eg, pedestrians, bicyclists, scooter riders – in essence, not armored by a vehicle). I usually post my findings on our Discord channel or under our website’s crash report section as they are released on Malden’s website.

Outside of Malden Safe Streets, I work in records management for the philanthropic side of a non-profit hospital. So my experience is mainly with data integrity and enrichment of donor records maintained in a CRM, or client relationship management system. (Salesforce is probably the most recognizable name for CRMs.) Through this tool (and also Excel), I have experience in filtering data points to help get a better understanding of information.  MassDOT’s crash portal operates in a pretty similar way as CRM’s query function, so I figured I’d take advantage of this opportunity to get a better understanding of Malden’s crash reports for the year 2025.

Intro

Now that 2025 is over, how did the year look for Malden in regards to crash data?  This information will be pulled from MassDOT’s crash portal and Malden’s Crash Reports where I will specifically look for crash data that took place in Malden spanning from the first day of January to the last day of December 2025.

📈Quick Breakdown of the Data

Overall, there were a total of 891 crashes* reported in Malden for the year 2025. 

* MassDOT’s portal has 827.  However, I noticed a lot of October’s crash reports were missing. On Malden’s website, I found 64 crash reports for October.)

How are we doing compared to neighboring towns? Focusing only on MassDOT’s data, we would be placed #2 in our cluster. Medford is 1st with 847 crashes in 2025; Malden 2nd with 827; Revere 3rd with 710; Saugus 4th at 628; Everett 5th with 503, Melrose last with 300.

🩹Injury

• 🥳 There were 0 fatalities in any of them.
• 🏥 11 were a suspected serious injury; 2 of these involved vulnerable people
• 🩹 129 were a suspected minor injury; 22 of these involved vulnerable people

❓Who or What Was Involved?

• 🚦463 (52%) involved *property damage only
• 🚗414 involved cars in traffic
• 🚶36 involved a pedestrian
• 🚴24 involved a cyclist
• 🛴 6 involved a scooter rider
• 🛵 4 with a moped

* Property damage includes 🚙 parked cars (267), utility poles (26), other lights poles (24), 🌳trees (14), curbs (11), and so on.

*How does this compare to previous years? The police department recently released their 2024 traffic analysis. Here’s the data they shared.*

At 891, we’re only about 36 crashes (4%) under the 10-year average. 2025 has seen 6 more (30%) crashes involving bicyclists compared to last year, almost double the 10-year average. Pedestrians are at about average for the 10-year average and fortunately almost half the amount from last year. (What happened in 2024???)

Other Data Points

Outside of crash reports, here are some other data points that might be noteworthy:

• Average of 36,639 active vehicles in 2025 (MA Vehicle Census Data)
• Average of 28.13 daily miles driven in 2025 (MA Vehicle Census Data)
• Total of 21,449 Bluebike trips starting or ending in Malden in 2025 (BluebikeData)
• Average cost of $2,493 for annual full coverage premium in 2025 (Datawrapper)

🛣️Junction Type

• 🛣️530 crashes (59%) were not at a junction.

• 314 crashes were at a junction

  • ➕ 161 were at a 4-way-intersection.
  • 132 were at a T-intersection.
  • (21 I didn’t identify since they’re from the October reports)

📍These are the locations of all crashes in 2025

The orange dot means 1 crash occurred there. Practically all of October is excluded due to being missing from MassDOT’s database.

🛣️Streets with the most collisions (intersections excluded)

Below are the streets with the most collisions. I’ll list landmarks on the right side.

#9 Highland Ave … 13 crashes . . Amerige, DiPietro’s, Wendy’s

#8 Charles St … … 13 crashes . . New England Coffee, Pisa Pizza

#7 Medford St … . . 15 crashes . . El Mexsal, train overpass, Salem Five

#6 Commercial St . . .18 crashes . . former 110 Grill, Super 88, Misty Mountain

#5 Pleasant St … … 18 crashes . . Boda Borg, Immaculate Conception

#4 Main St … … … 25 crashes . . Bell Rock, Three Amigo’s, Spadafora Funeral

#3🥉 Salem St … … 36 crashes . . Malden High, Salemwood

#2🥈 Eastern Ave … 41 crashes . . Sun Kong, Planet Fitness, Holy Cross Cemetery

#1🏆 Broadway … . 70 crashes . . McDonald’s, Econo Lodge, Town Line Bowling

Besides these streets getting a lot of traffic, I think it’s important to point out that not all street lengths are the same.  For example, Broadway goes all the way across Malden from Everett toward Saugus, so it doesn’t really surprise me there were that many collisions.  If I were able to, I’d figure out the number of crashes per one mile of road.

Good news is that Broadway and Eastern Ave (Route 60) are currently in the works. Boston Region MPO held a meeting on April 6 2026 where Broadway in Malden was one of the talking points, and the City of Malden is having a public meeting on April 13th to talk about redesigning the section between Franklin and Lynn St.

➕ Intersections with the most collisions

Below are the intersections with the most collisions.  I’ll list landmarks on the right side.

#5 Fellsway @ Highland Av … . . 2 crashes … 99 bus, 4-lane with trees median

#4 Pierce St @ Salem St … … … 4 crashes … Salem towers, church, Your Coffery

#3🥉 Broadway @ Eastern … … 5 crashes … CVS, gas station, cemetary

#2🥈 Commercial @ Medford St . . 8 crashes … former Dockside, train overpass

#1🏆 Centre @ Main St … … … 8 crashes … Walgreens, Chase, AT&T

🗓️ Time

For all crashes, the numbers weren’t that widely different when separated by month.  When it comes to season, it seems like 🌞 summer is the safest season with an average of 68 crashes. The other seasons were floating above 75 crashes. (October had 64, but the fact that these reports were missing from MassDOT makes me unsure if these are all of them.)

🚶For those involving pedestrians, August had the most with 5 crashes, then July, June and March had 4 each.  🕘 For time of day, 4PM had the highest amount with 5 incidents.  Those with 4 incidents each were 8AM, 12PM, and 9PM.

🗺️Number of All Crashes per Ward

To try to figure the numbers out for this, I used MassDOT’s spatial query option.  That way, I can draw a shape to focus only on a specific ward. I made sure to follow the outlines of the city’s ward map, but not to a T.  If the numbers don’t add up below, it’s because some streets counted toward both wards.  One example is Broadway, so there are crashes reported there that I made fall under Ward 6 and Ward 8.  Here’s the list below, with the name of the ward councilors included.

#8 Ward 3 … . Linehan … . ~61 crashes . . NW, borders Medford, Melrose

#7 Ward 2 … . Condon … . ~91 crashes . . SW, borders Medford

#6 Ward 5 … . Taylor … . . ~95 crashes . . CN, borders Melrose

#5 Ward 4 … . O’Malley … ~115 crashes . . C, Square up to Melrose

#4 Ward 7 … . Simonelli … ~122 crashes . . SE, borders Everett

#3🥉 Ward 6 . . Winslow … ~146 crashes . . CE, borders Melrose, Saugus

#2🥈 Ward 1 . . Crowe … . ~180 crashes … S, borders Everett

#1🥇 Ward 8 . . Sica … … ~184 crashes … E, borders Revere & Saugus

(October is excluded since I’d have to look at each report one by one to figure out the ward.)

Similar to the list of streets with the most collisions, not all wards have the same amount of traffic or street length. Being able to compare the number of crashes per daily vehicle driven or by mile of road would give a better explanation, I believe.

🎒 Schools

The list below consists of collisions that occurred on streets bordering a school.  For example, Malden High School would include portions of Salem St, Ferry St, Eastern Ave, and Holden St.

• 8 crashes . . Malden High School
• 5 crashes . . Early Learning Center (fka Holmes School)
• 4 crashes . . Beebe
• 3 crashes . . Mystic Valley Regional Charter High (Highland)
• 2 crashes . . Salemwood
• 2 crashes . . Mystic Valley Regional Charter Elementary (Maplewood)
• 2 crashes . . Malden Catholic
• 1 crashes . . Ferryway
• 1 crashes . . Forestdale
• 1 crashes . . Linden
• 2 crashes . . Mystic Valley PreK (Eastern Ave)
• 1 crash? . . Cheverus School

🚌School Bus 

There were seven crash reports that were school bus-related. One also involved a pedestrian (listed first).

Jan 8 @ 11:28 AM - 14 Hartshorn St (Ward 6) - School bus was driving south on Lebanon attempting to make a left turn eastbound onto Hartshorn St when they struck a pedestrian attempting to cross the street. The left mirror of the bus hit the pedestrian’s left shoulder. This happened near Mystic Valley Charter School.

Feb 7 @ 7:35 AM - Emerald @ Pearl (Ward 1) - An NRT bus got rear-ended by a sedan due to black ice.

March 14 @ 3:27 PM - Meridian St @ Wigglesworth St (Ward 1) - A sedan struck an SP&R bus with an 18-year-old passenger.

Apr 7 @ 5:44 PM - 277 Commercial St (Ward 1) - An unknown vehicle (the bus?) hit a parked sedan while that car’s owner was working inside South Cove Community Health Center.

May 29 @ 8:31AM - 22 Howard St (Ward 1) - While attempting to pick up kids in the morning, the Van Pool Transportation bus got rear-ended by a car. Their website mentions they serve children with special needs.

Nov 8 @ 6:06PM - Broadway N (Ward 6/8) - Not in Malden’s crash report, but this incident occurred a little bit north of McDonald’s.

Dec 19 @ 9:41 AM - 90 Pleasant St (Ward 4) - Near Boda Borg, an Ingle Bus struck a parked car while they were attempting to pull over to the left.

🚶Crashes Involving Pedestrians

36 crash reports involved pedestrians.  

In the query, this is pulled from the column labelled “First Harmful Event” and filtering the options to only look at “Collision with pedestrian,” which returns 36. However, the “Vulnerable User Type” was labelled as bicyclist or motor scooter rider for 9 of them. So, the true number may be 27.

Here’s a map of where these incidents occurred:

> The orange dot means it’s 1 crash report.

The most crashes with pedestrians (8) tend to be in the area of Charles St/ Main St.  I zoomed in more closely to get a better idea of where specifically these crashes happened.

We can see that 2 occurred at the Main St @ Centre St intersection, but there may be a discrepancy because Malden’s crash report description makes it sound like it occurred at the crosswalk behind Stop & Shop at Centre @ Canal.  That crash unfortunately involved a mother and a son on a Razor scooter who both had to be transported to the hospital. (6/10/2025 @ 9:05AM)

The one at Centre @ Ferry involved a mother pushing a stroller across the crosswalk.  The driver in the minivan was turning left from southbound Ferry to eastward Centre St when the two got struck. The driver states that sun glare prevented him from seeing them. (2/19/2025 @ 8:09 AM)

The one at Main @ Eastern involved a scooterist travelling north on Main St collided with a car driving south on Main turning onto Eastern Ave.  The crash narrative makes it sound like the person was riding his scooter, so I’m not sure why they were labelled as a pedestrian. (7/4/2025 @ 6:41 PM)

❌Data Discrepancy

Based on the Main @ Eastern example, it looked like there may be some discrepancy regarding how they were recorded so I went to look further into this.  Even if the “First Harmful Event” is labelled as “Collision with Pedestrian,” there is another field type titled “Vulnerable User Type” where they may be labelled otherwise.

So of the 36 crash reports labelled as “collision with pedestrians,” their vulnerable user type corresponded this way: 🚴4 were a bicyclist, 🛴3 a motorized scooter rider, 🛴2 a non-motorized scooter rider and 1 “blank”.  So maybe it was really only 27 pedestrians?

🩹Ages of Injured Pedestrians 

There was an option to look at the youngest known or older known vulnerable user, so I went with the youngest known.  Whether I selected the youngest or oldest, the charts looked the same most likely because crashes mostly involved hitting one person.

The largest age group of those hit were 25-34 years old (7 counts). 
The 2nd largest group were two groups with 5 each, 65-74 years old and 35-44 years old. 
3 involved children under 6, and 4 were 6-15 years old.

🚸 Crashes that involved children pedestrians under 6

These are the crash narratives provided for those who were under 6 years old (not word-for-word from the report).

Feb 19 @ 8:09am  - Ferry @ Centre St near Cheverus - (Ward ¼) - A 48-year-old man driving a Mercedes-Benz minivan was turning left from southbound Ferry St to eastward Centre St when he struck a woman pushing a stroller in the crosswalk. The driver stated the glare from the sun prevented him from seeing them. The mother and child were transported to MGH. 

July 22 @ 8:03 AM - Highland @ Savin near Ameriage Park/Fellsmere Pond - (Ward 3) - A motorist was driving east on Savin St. While attempting to take a left turn to go north on Highland Ave, he struck a parent and child as they were attempting to cross the intersection westbound on Savin St. The front right part of the car struck the two, making them fall backwards.  Injuries include scrapes to the right ankle of the child and scrapes in the left inner elbow of the other party.  Both were transported to different hospitals. 

Nov 3 @ 3:50 PM - Cross @ Bryant St near Linden Common - (Ward 7) - One pedestrian of two was struck by a car on the crosswalk on Cross St alongside Bryant St. The car was driving straight. That pedestrian was brought to MGH.

🚸 Crashes that involved pedestrians 6-15 years of age

These are the crash narratives provided for those who were 6-15 years old.

May 27 @ 4:33PM - Eastern Ave @ Sheafe St (Ward 7)  – This does not show up in Malden’s Crash Reports - MassDOT mentions the driver wasn’t paying attention.   This area is near Planet Fitness and the Police Dept. “Vulnerable user type #2 bicyclist,” so was this a pedestrian or a bicyclist? 

June 10 @ 9:06AM - 120 Centre St (Ward 1/4 Line) - The map has the mother and son on Canal St near the intersection west of Stop & Shop. A Ford truck driver stated he was driving east on Centre St when he felt the back of his truck got hit. When he looked back, he saw a mother and son on a Razor scooter had hit the back.  When the police spoke with the mother, she stated that a trash truck let her cross the street and didn’t see the Ford truck driving straight and then got hit.  The mother and son were transported to Melrose-Wakefield.    

June 28 @ 1:04PM - 188 Commercial St (Ward 1) – While driving east in the parking lot of Super 88 Market, the motorist hit the 6-15-year-old who was then brought to the hospital. 

🚸 Crash report involving a pedestrian between 16 and 20 years old

Nov 4 @ 4:02PM - Pierce St @ Salem St (Ward 5) - They were struck by a car on the western crosswalk on Salem St near Pierce St. The driver was driving west on Salem St and said there was a strong solar glare making it hard to see.  The pedestrian was brought to MGH. 

👴 The crash that involved a pedestrian over 84 years old

Dec 19 @ 11:54 AM - Centre St @ Main St (Ward 4) - The motorist was turning from Main St onto Centre St going westbound when they struck a pedestrian at a crosswalk with the front driver’s side quarter panel.  The car did have the green light to turn.  The pedestrian was brought to MGH.  The report doesn’t specify if the car was driving north or south on Main.

🦓Crosswalk

We’ve heard arguments that pedestrians getting hit weren’t crossing at the crosswalk.  Here is what the data shows:

For data purposes, I dropped off 5 cases from ‘Vulnerable User Location’: Blank 2, Unknown 1, Other 1; Not in roadway 1.

Without looking into the details of the crash portal 2/3rd of pedestrians were not at a crosswalk. These field options were labelled as “in roadway” or “at intersection but no crosswalk.” However looking more deeply, 4 seem to be a case of jaywalking.

1. Crossing in front of Misty Mountain Shop (Dec 3 @ 7:20PM)
2. Crossing Pearl St near the Whitman St T-junction (Mar 3 @ 4:13PM)
3. Crossing Main St near Wilson Ave T-junction (Jan 20 @7:20PM)
4. Crossing 505 Lynn St, ~100ft away from a crosswalk. (Aug 28 @ 8:55 PM)

If you want to include another one, there’s a crash report where the motorist and pedestrian debated about them being at the crosswalk near Central Ave’s CVS (3/27/2025 @ 9:37PM).

What about the other labelled as not at crosswalk?

• Well, two were actually bicyclists – one on Pearl St (Jul 28 @ 4:13 PM) and another at Eastern @ Sheafe ST (May 27 @ 4:33PM).
• Another was a person getting hit by a backing up box truck (Aug 8 @ 2:04PM).
• Then there’s a woman who was struck outside her home on Sammett St (Mar 25 @ 9AM). 
• Another was actually a Malden police officer getting struck as he was assisting a stalled car on Broadway (May 28 @ 12:10PM).

🚲 Crashes Involving Bicyclists

25 crash reports involved bicyclists.  

In the query, this is pulled from the column labelled “First Hamful Event” then filtering to only see “Collision with cyclist” which shows a count of 16. One’s “Vulnerable User Type” was labelled as a motorized scooter, so I’ll drop that one.  And then I looked at “Collision with pedestrian” whose “Vulnerable User Type” was labelled as bicyclist where there were 4 of. From October’s reports, 5 mentioned them being cyclists in the crash narrative.

🚲 Location of all 2025 crashes involving bicyclists

> The 5 blue squares are the ones I added (from the October reports).

Out of the 25, it looks like 6 were within 100ft of the bike path (on the map, 3 got lumped in to looking nearby).  These below are the crash narratives for those near the bike path from west to east:

June 18 @ 3:02 PM - 105 Canal St (Ward 1) - Near Anthony’s, a scooter rider going north on the sidewalk got doored when the passenger attempted to get out of a parked car. There’s no mention of the scooterist being transported to a hospital. (“Doored” is a common term used when a bicyclist crashes into a car door that was just opened.)

Dec 18 @ 7:14 AM - 67 Bryant St (Ward 5) - The motorist was driving south on Bryant St and collided with an e-bicyclist crossing the bike path. The e-bicyclist was brought to Melrose Wakefield for back and leg pain.

May 8 @ 6:06PM - Northern Strand Trail @ Faulkner St (Ward 5) - A sedan motorist struck a cyclist that was crossing at the Faulkner intersection of the Northern Strand Bike path.

March 7 @ 4:58PM - Willow St @ Eastern Ave (Ward 7) - A sedan motorist was turning left from Eastern Ave onto Willow Street when he struck a woman operating a motorized bicycle in the crosswalk. She was transported to Mass General.

May 30 @ 4:16 PM - Lynn St @ Wesley St (Ward 8) - At the fork-shaped intersection of the bike path near Harley Davidson, a motorist driving north on Wesley St hit a bicyclist at the crosswalk.

March 13 @ 6:44AM - Lynn St @ Salem St (Ward 8) - Near the Route 1 on-and-off ramps and a few hundred feet away from the bike path portion that goes under the highway, a sedan motorist was attempting to turn right onto Lynn St from Salem St after stopping at the stop sign when he accidentally struck a bicyclist, resulting in the bicyclist falling down. The driver says he didn’t see the bicyclist since it was dark out and he was wearing dark clothing. The bicyclist was feeling pain on his right wrist and left hip and was transported to CHA Everett for further evaluation.

🚲 Ages of Injured Cyclists

Like the chart for pedestrians, the chart for youngest and oldest-known look the same.  It most likely means it involved one bicyclist getting hurt and not a group.

The most common age groups had 3 crashes each, one group being 25-24 years old, the other 45-54.  There were two crashes that involved those that are 6-15 years old.

🩹Crash reports involving bicyclists between 6 and 15 years old

April 1 @ 6:56PM - 17 Meridian St (Ward 1) - A 10-year-old rode his bicycle out of the driveway into the street and was struck by a Honda Pilot (placed under the same category as sedans) going about 15 mph knocking the child to the ground causing minor injuries.  The child was transported to MGH.

May 29 @ 6:19 PM - in front of Malden High School (Ward 4) - Not filed under Malden’s crash reports. MassDOT mentions the light truck was driving west on Salem St when they struck  a cyclist crossing at the crosswalk between Malden High School and the library.

📰Local Controversy

May 14 @ 9:29AM - 269 Main St (Ward 1) - Near the former Doo Wop, a bicyclist crossing the crosswalk on Main St that connects the bike path made contact with the side of a car stopped at the light but then rides away without exchanging any information.  The motorist made a Facebook post in the Malden (MA) Politics group that grabbed the attention of many locals.  His photo shows that the bicyclist was on the crosswalk that connects the Northern Strand on Main St.

I can’t recall how soon after, but a new sign was installed on the island facing south to signal cars to stop at the white line.

🛴Crashes Involving Scooter Riders

MassDOT doesn’t have a field type specifically for scooters, so I have to look under bost pedestrians and cyclists to find these.  It looks like there were 6 incidences involving scooter riders, 2 of which were nonmotorized scooters.

One scooter incident was mentioned above under bicyclist. They got doored on the sidewalk along Canal St.

June 12 @ 10:15 PM - Eastern Ave @ Daniels (Ward 7) - This one doesn’t show up in Malden’s Crash Report, but it looks like someone in their early 20s riding a scooter got struck at the crosswalk going across Eastern Ave near Daniels St.

July 4 @ 6:41 PM - Main St @ Eastern Ave (Ward ¼ Line) – A scooter rider in their early 20s was travelling north on Main St when they collided with a car driving south on Main turning onto Eastern Ave. He was transported to MGH.  

Sept 8 @ 12:46 PM - Florence St @ Main St (Ward 4) - When the light turned green, the motorist driving east on Florence attempted to turn left to go north on Main St. However, a person on an electric scooter (age 25-34) was driving on the crosswalk and collided with the car. No hospital visits were needed.

June 6 @ 7:39AM – 30 Faulkner St (Ward 5) - Motorist was driving north on Faulkner when a scooterist (age 6-15) traveling east on the Northern Strand Bike Trail entered the roadway. The scooterist said his brakes failed, and he hit the driver’s side tire. He declined medical treatment. 

🚴🛴One Crash Involving a Bicyclist and Scooter Rider

Mid-May 2025 @ Bike Path near Bluebike Station - (Ward 1) - On the Malden Bike Path near the Bluebike station on Main Street, a bicyclist and Segway scooter crashed into each other. Both were brought to Melrose-Wakefield.

🚑 The pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders that were seriously hurt

These are the vulnerable users that were seriously hurt.

🚶‍♂️Jan 20 @ 5:47AM - Main St @ Wilson Av - Near Bell Rock Memorial Park, while driving north on Main St a Maldonian motorist struck a 65-to-74-year-old pedestrian. The pedestrian was transported to MGH. The driver lives near the Broadway/Center St intersection.  The pedestrian is 65-74 years old. MassDOT says there was snow/sleet/hail.

🚴‍♀️Mar 7 @ 4:58PM - Willow St @ Eastern Ave (Ward 7) - A sedan motorist was turning left from Eastern Ave onto Willow Street when he struck a 45-to-54-year-old woman operating a motorized bicycle in the crosswalk. She was transported to Mass General. She lives a little over a mile away. The driver lives ½ mile away.

🚶‍♀️🚲 Sept 19 @ 10:16 AM - Centre St @ Holden St (Ward 4/7) -  A motorist was driving west on Centre St and took a slight right traveling north on Holden Street (east of Malden High) and struck a 55-to-64-year-old bicyclist at the crosswalk. The bicyclist claimed to have injuries on her lower back, neck, left glute/hip, left arm, and hit her head.  She was transported to CHA Everett.  Her bike was stored for safekeeping at the police department.  (MassDOT has it labelled as a collision with a pedestrian but has VU2=bicyclist. Maybe they were walking their bike?)

📍Where Do They Live?

Malden’s crash reports used to list the homes of the people involved in these crashes.  The location of the crash and the address helped give me a sense how far away from the crash these people live. Because this information isn’t in the MassDOT crash portal, it required manual entry. I was only writing out crash reports for those involving vulnerable users (eg, pedestrian, bicyclists), so this is what I found from the few.

• Between 50-60% of drivers and vulnerable users live in Malden.

• 🚶For pedestrians, of the 27 counts I wrote down:

  • 26% - 7 pedestrians were struck within ¼ mile from their home.
  • 67% - 18 pedestrians were struck about or within 1 mile from their home. (including the 7)

• 🚗 For drivers, of the 32 counts I wrote down:

  • 16% - 5 drivers were within ¼ mile from their home
  • 50% - 16 drivers were about or within 1 mile from their home (including the 5)

🩹 Rate of Injury Type for Malden 2025

• 🚶5.56% of hit pedestrians were seriously injured 
• 🚴6.25% of hit bicyclists were seriously injured
• 🚗1.04% of hit drivers were seriously injured

👮‍♂️Police Paperwork

The 2024 traffic analysis says that “an average traffic collision can occupy from 42 minutes to more than 2.5 hours of an officer’s time depending upon the damage and severity of the collision.” With 891 collisions, that would mean that in 2025 the Malden police have spent about 25 days and 23 hours of their time toward collisions. That’s about an hour and 42 minutes a day!

📊My Findings Regarding Data Integrity

I just wanted to keep in mind some things when I was comparing MassDOT’s crash data portal to Malden’s Crash Reports Document Center.

• About all of October 2025 is missing from MassDot’s crash portal.  MassDOT only had 5, which were streets managed by the state police (Fellsway, Route 1).  I went to Malden’s website where I found 64 crash reports. The discrepancy makes me wonder if there are other crash reports missing from the data portal but mentioned on the City of Malden’s website.
• Some crash reports were missing from Malden’s crash reports.  I’ve mentioned some here where there were reports that showed up in MassDot’s crash portal but not in Malden’s website, so I couldn’t pull up the crash narrative.  
• MassDot labelled some cyclists as pedestrians.  I’m not entirely sure why.  It’s possible that some of these people were walking their bikes.
• MassDot labelled all scooterists as either a pedestrian or cyclist. E-scooters are kind of new, so it doesn’t surprise me there’s not a field type for this like there are for cyclists and pedestrians.
• MassDOT places light SUVs and sedans under the same category.  In one crash report, I noticed that the crash narrative mentioned a Honda Pilot was involved but it was labelled as a Type 1 Vehicle, ie passenger car (page 2). This is the same category for sedans, but these cars tend to be much taller than your typical sedan.  For example, see this Honda Pilot in comparison to a Toyota Corolla.  Now here’s the car compared it to a Type 2 Vehicle (ie light truck) Dodge Ram. I feel like cars like these should be placed under the Type 2 category.  This may also explain why in the Safety Analysis Crash Tree tool where I was comparing injury severity rate of pedestrians with vehicle type, it looked inconclusive in judging whether larger cars cause more harm than sedans.  (This may have also been because there were not enough crash reports to make a good analysis on.  Of the 26 crashes involving pedestrians, only 4 cars were ID’d as light trucks/Type 2)
• MassDOT labelled at least one location wrong. They labelled the incident at Main @ Eastern, but Malden’s crash report has them to the west of Stop & Shop.
• MassDOT has the data. Malden Crash Report has the story. MassDot doesn’t show me if one case involved a mother and baby in a stroller.  It also doesn’t show me one case involved a police officer, but the crash narrative under Malden’s Crash Report can help me find out these small details.

✍️Conclusion

I’d like to thank MassDOT and the Malden Police Department for publishing this information! It was really fun for my nerdy self to dig into!

I hope this information was insightful for you guys!  What did you learn from this?  Did it confirm anything for you? Did it make you want to learn more? Maybe there are some questions you have that MassDOT’s data can help answer!

If you have any questions or feedback on this, feel free to reach out to [email protected]. This was my first time looking this deeply into the crash reports data.