Do Massachusetts Gateway Cities Have More Crashes Than the Rest of the State?

Yes, and by a wider margin than their size suggests. The 26 communities the Commonwealth designates as Gateway Cities recorded 137,219 crashes from 2022 through 2024, which is 33.86 percent of all 405,239 crashes in Massachusetts over those three years. Their share of pedestrian crashes is far higher still at 47.64 percent, meaning close to half of every Massachusetts crash involving a person on foot happened in one of these 26 places. Their share of fatal crashes runs the other way at 25.02 percent, the lowest of any measure here. Expressed as rates, the Gateway Cities run 20.76 pedestrian crashes per 1,000 crashes against 11.68 in the rest of the state, and 1.98 fatal crashes per 1,000 against 3.04 in the rest of the state. The more useful finding is inside the group rather than about it: the spread between these 26 communities is roughly seven-fold on both measures, from Salem at 51.28 pedestrian crashes per 1,000 down to Taunton and Leominster at 6.77, and from Chicopee at 4.20 fatal crashes per 1,000 down to Fitchburg at 0.60. Gateway City is an economic designation under M.G.L. c. 23A, sec. 3A, and it does not describe a single road-safety profile. Every figure here comes from MassDOT crash records and can be checked community by community in the Massachusetts crash report. Jim Glaser Law can be reached at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is offered without charge.

What a Gateway City Is, and What the Statute Does Not Do

The term is often used loosely to mean an old mill city. In Massachusetts it has a statutory definition. M.G.L. c. 23A, sec. 3A defines a Gateway municipality as:

a municipality with a population greater than 35,000 and less than 250,000 with a median household income below the commonwealth’s average and a rate of educational attainment of a bachelor’s degree or above that is below the commonwealth’s average.

Three criteria, all economic or demographic, and not one of them about roads. That matters for reading everything below, because a category built on income and education has no obvious reason to predict crash outcomes, and the data shows it predicts some things strongly and others not at all.

One point of honesty about sourcing. The statute sets the criteria and does not list the municipalities by name. The roster of 26 used throughout this article is the designated list published by MassINC’s Gateway Cities program: Attleboro, Barnstable, Brockton, Chelsea, Chicopee, Everett, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Methuen, New Bedford, Peabody, Pittsfield, Quincy, Revere, Salem, Springfield, Taunton, Westfield and Worcester.

The population ceiling in the statute also explains an absence that would otherwise look like an error. Boston is the single largest source of crashes in Massachusetts at 17,407 over the three years, and it is not a Gateway City, because its population sits above the 250,000 limit the statute sets.

Nine of the Ten Highest-Crash Communities in Massachusetts

Rank all 349 Massachusetts communities in the dataset by total crashes from 2022 through 2024. Boston is first. Every one of the next nine is a Gateway City: Worcester, Springfield, New Bedford, Fall River, Lowell, Brockton, Taunton, Quincy and Lynn. Eighteen of the top 25 are Gateway Cities.

That concentration is the plainest fact in this dataset, and it is worth stating in the form that is actually true. It is not that these are the most dangerous places to drive in Massachusetts. It is that this is where the driving happens. A third of the Commonwealth’s recorded crashes occur in 26 municipalities out of 349, because those 26 hold a large share of its dense road network, its commercial strips, its bus routes and its people walking to them.

Answer Capsule

The 26 Massachusetts Gateway Cities defined by M.G.L. c. 23A, sec. 3A recorded 137,219 crashes from 2022 through 2024, 33.86 percent of the statewide total of 405,239. They account for 47.64 percent of pedestrian crashes, 36.42 percent of injury crashes, 31.22 percent of bicycle crashes and 25.02 percent of fatal crashes. Per 1,000 crashes they run 20.76 involving a pedestrian against 11.68 in the rest of the state, and 1.98 fatal against 3.04 in the rest of the state. The variation inside the group is larger than the gap between the group and the state: pedestrian rates run from Salem at 51.28 per 1,000 to Taunton and Leominster at 6.77, and fatal rates from Chicopee at 4.20 to Fitchburg at 0.60.

The Four Measures, Side by Side

The whole comparison in one table. Rest of state is the statewide figure minus the Gateway figure, which is the cleaner comparison, since the statewide number contains the Gateway Cities inside it.

Measure	Gateway Cities	Rest of Massachusetts	Statewide
Crashes, 2022 to 2024	137,219	268,020	405,239
Fatal crashes	272	815	1,087
Injury crashes	33,783	58,977	92,760
Bicycle crashes	1,360	2,996	4,356
Pedestrian crashes	2,849	3,131	5,980

And the same thing as rates per 1,000 crashes, which is how the shape becomes visible:

Rate per 1,000 crashes	Gateway Cities	Rest of Massachusetts	Statewide
Fatal	1.98	3.04	2.68
Injury	246.20	220.05	228.90
Bicycle	9.91	11.18	10.75
Pedestrian	20.76	11.68	14.76

Read those two tables together and the pattern is that a Gateway City crash is more likely to hurt somebody and less likely to kill them, and much more likely to involve a person on foot. That shape is not new to this site. The Main Street, Broadway and Pleasant Street analyses all found versions of it, and the reason is the same in each case: dense older centres produce many low-speed collisions among many people walking, while faster suburban and rural roads produce fewer crashes with worse outcomes per crash. A fourth demonstration of that confirms nothing that was not already established, so it is reported here as background rather than as a discovery.

The bicycle row is the one that does not follow the script. If density alone drove these numbers, the Gateway Cities should carry an elevated bicycle rate the way they carry an elevated pedestrian rate. They do not. At 9.91 per 1,000 they sit slightly below the 11.18 of the rest of the state. Pedestrian exposure and bicycle exposure are not the same thing and do not track together in Massachusetts.

The Real Finding: the Spread Inside the Group

Here is every Gateway City, ranked by its position among all 349 Massachusetts communities for total crashes.

Statewide rank	Community	Crashes	Fatal	Injury	Pedestrian	Fatal per 1,000	Pedestrian per 1,000
2	Worcester	15,598	29	3,276	327	1.90	20.96
3	Springfield	11,109	44	3,783	214	4.00	19.26
4	New Bedford	11,070	14	2,330	197	1.30	17.80
5	Fall River	9,045	11	2,286	213	1.20	23.55
6	Lowell	7,781	10	1,765	179	1.30	23.00
7	Brockton	7,378	20	2,604	183	2.70	24.80
8	Taunton	6,644	12	1,275	45	1.80	6.77
9	Quincy	6,455	7	1,308	155	1.10	24.01
10	Lynn	6,074	9	1,694	268	1.50	44.12
11	Lawrence	5,385	5	1,353	145	0.90	26.93
12	Chicopee	5,238	22	1,193	72	4.20	13.75
14	Haverhill	4,815	4	961	79	0.80	16.41
18	Holyoke	4,245	12	978	63	2.80	14.84
20	Peabody	3,746	5	847	41	1.30	10.95
21	Barnstable	3,703	13	940	55	3.50	14.85
22	Leominster	3,543	4	737	24	1.10	6.77
23	Fitchburg	3,424	2	517	30	0.60	8.76
24	Methuen	3,409	8	961	32	2.30	9.39
29	Attleboro	3,234	4	815	28	1.20	8.66
32	Chelsea	2,920	7	724	130	2.40	44.52
34	Pittsfield	2,809	9	620	57	3.20	20.29
35	Malden	2,791	3	709	104	1.10	37.26
40	Revere	2,298	6	712	75	2.60	32.64
55	Westfield	1,864	3	631	28	1.60	15.02
69	Salem	1,677	6	457	86	3.60	51.28
122	Everett	964	3	307	19	3.10	19.71

Two columns in that table do the work.

On pedestrian rate, Salem records 51.28 crashes involving a person on foot per 1,000 crashes, Chelsea 44.52 and Lynn 44.12. Taunton and Leominster record 6.77, Attleboro 8.66 and Fitchburg 8.76. That is a range of more than seven to one inside a single statutory category, and it brackets the statewide figure of 14.76 from both sides. Nineteen of the 26 sit above the state rate and seven sit below it.

On fatal rate, Chicopee records 4.20 fatal crashes per 1,000, Springfield 4.00, Salem 3.60 and Barnstable 3.50, all above the statewide 2.68. Fitchburg records 0.60, Haverhill 0.80 and Lawrence 0.90, all far below it. Eighteen of the 26 sit below the state rate. Springfield is the outlier that deserves naming on its own: 44 fatal crashes over three years is the largest count of any Gateway City and more than Worcester’s 29 despite Worcester recording 4,489 more crashes.

What separates the two ends is not the Gateway designation, which all 26 share. It is street geometry and what the local road network is used for. Salem, Chelsea, Lynn and Malden are compact, walked, and built long before the car. Taunton, Leominster, Attleboro and Methuen carry a large share of their traffic on arterials and state-numbered routes where fewer people are on foot to be struck. Chicopee’s high fatal rate sits alongside a road list headed by Memorial Drive at 203 crashes in 2024, which is a high-volume arterial rather than a downtown street grid.

What This Is Not, and the Limits of the Data

Four limits, stated plainly, because the numbers above are easy to over-read.

Every comparison here is crash to crash, never crash per resident or per mile driven. This repository holds verified crash counts and no verified population or traffic-volume figures, so nothing here says a Gateway City is more dangerous per person or per journey. It says what share of crashes, and what share of crash outcomes, fall in these communities.

Reporting practice varies between police departments, and one figure in the table shows it. Everett records 964 crashes, which is a quarter of the count in Malden and Revere, its immediate neighbours of broadly comparable density. The honest reading is that this looks like a difference in how crashes are recorded and forwarded rather than proof that Everett’s streets are four times safer, and it is flagged here rather than left for a reader to trip over.

Fatal counts are small numbers, and small numbers move. Fitchburg’s 0.60 rests on 2 fatal crashes across three years, and Malden’s 1.10 on 3. One additional crash would change either figure substantially. The volume columns are far more stable than the fatal-rate column.

Finally, none of this establishes fault in any individual crash. A community’s crash history says nothing about who was careless on a particular day. Where the local numbers are genuinely useful is practical: a corridor generating dozens of crashes a year is a corridor with signal-timing records, sight-line surveys, maintenance logs and prior complaints that exist and can be requested.

If You Were Hurt in One of These Communities

All 26 Gateway Cities have a town-level page in the Massachusetts crash report carrying their own crash, injury, fatality, bicycle and pedestrian counts and their highest-crash roads by name. The practice-area pages for the largest of them are Worcester, Springfield, New Bedford, Fall River, Lowell, Brockton, Quincy and Lynn.

Given how much of the pedestrian burden sits in these communities, the two articles worth reading next are pedestrian accident rights in Massachusetts and, for the statewide picture these 26 sit inside, Massachusetts pedestrian crash data. The injury-rate side of the table is covered in Massachusetts injury crash data, and where a claim is against a city or its employees rather than a private driver, the different track that claim runs on is set out in suing the government in Massachusetts. Three of these 26, Lynn, Salem and Peabody, sit inside a region whose other sixteen communities are not Gateway Cities at all, and the regional view that places them among their suburban and coastal neighbours is the North Shore crash data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which Massachusetts Gateway City has the most crashes?

A: Worcester, at 15,598 crashes from 2022 through 2024, which is second among all 349 Massachusetts communities behind Boston. Springfield follows at 11,109 and New Bedford at 11,070. Nine of the ten highest-crash communities in the Commonwealth are Gateway Cities, and 18 of the top 25 are.

Q: Why is Boston not a Gateway City?

A: Because of the population ceiling in the definition. M.G.L. c. 23A, sec. 3A defines a Gateway municipality as one “with a population greater than 35,000 and less than 250,000” that also falls below the state average on median household income and on bachelor’s-degree attainment. Boston’s population is above that ceiling. It records the most crashes of any Massachusetts community at 17,407 over the three years, and it sits outside this group.

Q: Are Gateway Cities more dangerous to drive in?

A: Not on the measure most people mean. Gateway Cities run 1.98 fatal crashes per 1,000 crashes against 3.04 in the rest of Massachusetts, so a crash in one of them is less likely to be fatal. They do run higher on injury, at 246.20 per 1,000 against 220.05, and much higher on pedestrian involvement, at 20.76 against 11.68. Note also that every comparison here is crash to crash rather than per resident or per mile driven, so none of it measures individual risk.

Q: Which Gateway City has the highest pedestrian crash rate?

A: Salem, at 51.28 crashes involving a pedestrian per 1,000 crashes, then Chelsea at 44.52, Lynn at 44.12 and Malden at 37.26. The statewide figure is 14.76. At the other end, Taunton and Leominster both record 6.77, below half the state rate. The range inside the group is more than seven to one.

Q: Which Gateway City has the highest fatal crash rate?

A: Chicopee, at 4.20 fatal crashes per 1,000 crashes, on 22 fatal crashes out of 5,238. Springfield follows at 4.00, Salem at 3.60 and Barnstable at 3.50, all above the statewide 2.68. Fitchburg is lowest at 0.60 on 2 fatal crashes, then Haverhill at 0.80 and Lawrence at 0.90. Fatal rates built on counts this small move a lot with one additional crash, so they should be read as indicative rather than precise.

Q: Does being a Gateway City tell you anything about crash risk?

A: Less than you would expect, and that is the most useful finding in this article. The designation is economic: population between 35,000 and 250,000, below-average median household income, below-average bachelor’s-degree attainment. The 26 communities carrying it differ from each other by roughly seven to one on pedestrian crash rate and roughly seven to one on fatal crash rate, and they sit on both sides of the statewide figure on both measures. What predicts the numbers is street layout and what the local road network is used for, not the designation.

Q: Why does Everett record so few crashes?

A: It records 964 over three years, which is a quarter of the counts in neighbouring Malden and Revere. This dataset holds what was reported to MassDOT, and reporting practice varies between departments, so the most likely explanation is a difference in recording and forwarding rather than a genuine four-fold safety gap. It is listed here as a figure to treat with caution rather than as a result.

Q: Where do these numbers come from?

A: MassDOT crash records covering calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024, including the fatal counts, aggregated across all 349 Massachusetts communities in the dataset. The Gateway City totals are the sum of the 26 designated communities, and rest-of-state figures are the statewide total minus that sum. The statutory definition is quoted from M.G.L. c. 23A, sec. 3A, and the roster of 26 communities is the designated list published by MassINC’s Gateway Cities program, since the statute itself sets criteria without naming municipalities.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This is general information about Massachusetts law and public crash data, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Whether any of it applies to your situation depends on facts that are not in this article. For advice about your own case, speak with a lawyer.

Talking to a Lawyer

If you were hurt in a crash in one of these 26 communities, the figures on this page are background rather than evidence. What decides a case is the specific collision: where the vehicles were, what the road looked like at that hour, who saw it, and what can still be documented now.

Jim Glaser Law can be reached at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is offered without charge.