How Many Crashes Happen on Interstate 190 in Massachusetts?

From 2022 through 2024, MassDOT crash records place 617 crashes on Interstate 190, 5 of them fatal and 173 with a non-fatal injury, along the highway that runs from Worcester north through Holden, West Boylston, Sterling and Lancaster to Leominster. What sets the road apart is the kind of crash: 54.6 percent were a single vehicle leaving the lane and striking something, against 29.8 percent on Interstate highways across Massachusetts, and that gap holds on dry pavement, in daylight, without deer, and in every year. All five fatal crashes happened in the dark on an unlighted stretch.

If you were hurt in a crash on Interstate 190 and want to talk through what comes next, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free. This page is general information about Massachusetts law and public crash data, not legal advice about your situation.

Where Interstate 190 Runs

Interstate 190 leaves Interstate 290 in Worcester and runs north, crossing into Holden briefly, then through West Boylston, Sterling and Lancaster, and ends in Leominster near Route 2. Every one of its six communities is in Worcester County. MassDOT’s road inventory carries the mainline under one name, Interstate 190. Most of the road north of Worcester carries a 65 mile per hour limit; 427 of the 617 crashes, 69.2 percent, were on stretches posted at 65.

How These Numbers Were Counted

The counts come from the MassDOT IMPACT open crash data for 2022, 2023 and 2024, counted by the road inventory name, because the State Police record most highway crashes by mile marker and often leave the typed roadway field blank.

Four checks were run before any number was used:

1. The name was checked against the mile markers. Crashes the police mile-marked to Interstate 190 carry the inventory name Interstate 190, apart from one ramp record and one local street.
2. Ramps were left out. Fifty-five crashes over the three years were on ramps named for Interstate 190 (20, 17 and 18), and none of them is in the totals below.
3. The collector-distributor roads were left out. The short parallel roads marked as northbound and southbound collector-distributor roads carry their own names in the records and are not included here.
4. The totals were reconciled. The town counts add up exactly to the road total in each year: 180 in 2022, 214 in 2023 and 223 in 2024. The town totals used for comparison match the Massachusetts crash report for all six communities.

The Three-Year Record

Measure	Interstate 190	All Interstate crashes	All Massachusetts crashes
Crashes, 2022 to 2024	617	41,260	405,243
Fatal crashes	5	156	1,087
Fatal crashes per 1,000 crashes	8.10	3.78	2.68
Crashes with a non-fatal injury	173	9,525	92,761
Injury share	28.04%	23.09%	22.89%
Single vehicle crashes	54.62%	29.84%	not compared

The count rose each year, from 180 to 214 to 223, an increase of 23.9 percent, while crashes on all Massachusetts Interstates stayed nearly flat (13,693, 13,732 and 13,835). The records carry no traffic counts or construction history, so this page does not offer a reason for the rise.

Beyond the share of single vehicle crashes, the road’s record differs from the Interstate class in several ways:

• Rear-end crashes are 20.7 percent (128), less than half the 44.5 percent on all Interstates. Interstate 190 is not, for the most part, a road of stop and go traffic.
• Snow, ice or slush was on the road in 110 crashes, 17.8 percent, against 5.4 percent on all Interstates. December (73), February (67) and January (65) were the three highest months.
• Deer were the first thing struck in 44 crashes, 7.1 percent, against 4.1 percent.
• A tree was the first thing struck in 32, 5.2 percent, against 1.5 percent. A guardrail was first in 79 (12.8 percent against 9.2), and the median barrier in 50 (8.1 percent against 4.7).
• 21.2 percent happened in the dark on an unlighted roadway (131), against 15.0 percent. Only 10.7 percent were in the dark on a lighted roadway, against 15.6 percent.
• A large truck or bus was involved in 22, 3.6 percent, against 6.1 percent.
• The State Police wrote 602 of the 617 reports, 97.6 percent; local police wrote the other 15.

Why the Single Vehicle Share Is the Finding

A road can show more single vehicle crashes for ordinary reasons: winter weather, darkness, deer, or a county where every highway looks the same. Each was checked against the same Interstate class.

Condition	Interstate 190 single vehicle share	All Interstates single vehicle share
All crashes	54.6% (337 of 617)	29.8%
Dry pavement only	43.8% (158 of 361)	22.8%
Daylight only	47.6% (185 of 389)	22.0%
Dry pavement and daylight	35.0% (83 of 237)	15.8%
Excluding deer strikes	51.3% (294 of 573)	27.1%
Dark, unlighted road	71.8% (94 of 131)	51.8%

Weather and darkness do not explain it. On dry pavement in daylight, the most ordinary driving conditions there are, more than a third of the road’s crashes were a single vehicle, more than double the Interstate figure.

Deer do not explain it. Take out every crash where a deer was struck first and the share is still 51.3 percent.

The county does not explain it. Every other Interstate crash in Worcester County, on Interstate 290, the Massachusetts Turnpike, Interstate 395 and Interstate 495 among others, was a single vehicle crash 31.1 percent of the time (1,892 of 6,082), close to the statewide class.

One year does not explain it. The share was 52.8 percent in 2022, 55.6 percent in 2023 and 55.2 percent in 2024.

The records do not say why. They record what was struck and under what conditions, not how fast a car was going or what the road geometry is, and this page does not supply a cause. What they do show is where the pattern lives: north of Worcester. In Holden 36 of 43 crashes were single vehicle crashes, in West Boylston 68 of 95, and in Sterling 101 of 156, against 73 of 193 on the Worcester stretch.

A single vehicle crash also hurts people more often here. Of the 337, 101 involved an injury, 30.0 percent, against 23.9 percent for single vehicle crashes on all Interstates. Rear-end crashes, by contrast, injured people at almost exactly the class rate, 25.0 percent against 24.7.

The Five Fatal Crashes

Five fatal crashes in three years is a small number, and no rate built on it should be ranked against other roads. At the Interstate class rate of 3.78 per 1,000, a road with 617 crashes would be expected to have about 2.3. All five were at night on an unlighted stretch; across all Massachusetts Interstates, 61 of 156 fatal crashes, 39.1 percent, were.

When and where	What the report records
October 2022, 7 p.m. hour, Leominster	One passenger car changing lanes northbound ran off the road to the right and overturned, near the ramp to the Leominster connector; the driver, aged 18 to 20, was recorded as exceeding the speed limit. One death and three people injured.
November 2022, 7 p.m. hour, West Boylston	A pedestrian aged 21 to 24 was struck by a northbound passenger car near a light truck recorded as slowing or stopped, south of the ramp to Route 12.
June 2023, 1 a.m. hour, Lancaster	A southbound tractor-trailer struck two motorcycles parked at the roadside. One death and one person injured.
December 2023, 1 a.m. hour, West Boylston	Head-on: a southbound car recorded as on the wrong side or going the wrong way struck a northbound car. The wrong-way driver was recorded as distracted by an electronic device.
May 2024, 10 p.m. hour, Sterling	Head-on in rain on wet pavement, north of the ramp from Route 140; one driver was recorded as driving too fast for conditions and operating in an erratic, reckless, careless, negligent or aggressive manner. Two people injured.

Two of the road’s five head-on crashes in three years were fatal. The reports say what happened, not why, and this page adds nothing to them.

The Six Communities

Community	I-190 crashes	Fatal	Injury share	Single vehicle share	All crashes in the community	I-190 share of the community’s crashes
Worcester	193	0	28.5%	37.8%	15,598	1.2%
Holden	43	0	30.2%	83.7%	815	5.3%
West Boylston	95	2	21.1%	71.6%	443	21.4%
Sterling	156	1	28.2%	64.7%	572	27.3%
Lancaster	45	1	31.1%	44.4%	791	5.7%
Leominster	85	1	31.8%	45.9%	3,543	2.4%

Sterling is where the highway matters most to a town’s record. More than a quarter of every crash recorded in Sterling in three years, 156 of 572, was on Interstate 190, and the only fatal crash in the town was on it. Deer were the first thing struck in 16 of those crashes and a tree in 15.

West Boylston recorded 95 crashes on its stretch, 21.4 percent of every crash in the town, and two of the town’s three fatal crashes.

Worcester has the most crashes on the road, 193, but they are a small part of a city with 15,598. The Worcester stretch is the only one mostly lit at night: 43 night crashes were on a lighted roadway and 8 on an unlighted one. Counted by the inventory name, Interstate 190 had 73 crashes in Worcester in 2024, which would tie Lincoln Street for eighth on the Worcester crash report, a list built from the typed roadway field that State Police highway reports often leave blank.

Leominster recorded 85 crashes at the north end, 31 of them in the dark on unlighted road and 10 with a deer. Its 30 in 2024 would put Interstate 190 fourth among Leominster roads that year on the Leominster crash report, behind North Main Street (59), Main Street (46) and Merriam Avenue (31).

Holden has only a short stretch, 43 crashes, but 36 of them were single vehicle crashes and 9 began with a deer, the highest deer share of any section. See the Holden crash report.

Lancaster recorded 45 crashes, including the fatal 2023 crash in which a tractor-trailer struck two motorcycles parked at the roadside.

Answer Capsule

MassDOT crash records for 2022 through 2024 place 617 crashes on Interstate 190, counted on the road inventory name with 55 ramp crashes excluded: 180, 214 and 223 by year, a rise of 23.9 percent while Interstate crashes statewide stayed flat. Five were fatal, about twice what the Interstate class rate would predict, and all five were in the dark on unlighted road; 173 involved a non-fatal injury, 28.0 percent against 23.1 for all Interstates. More than half, 54.6 percent, were single vehicle crashes, against 29.8 percent on all Interstates, and the gap holds on dry pavement in daylight (35.0 against 15.8 percent), without deer strikes (51.3 against 27.1), in every year, and against the rest of Worcester County’s Interstates (31.1 percent). In Sterling the highway accounts for 156 of the town’s 572 crashes. A claim from a crash on the road must be started within three years under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A.

The Law That Applies to a Crash on Interstate 190

The crash data describes the road. A handful of statutes decide what a person hurt on it can do.

Your own policy pays first. Under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A, personal injury protection pays medical expenses and part of lost wages up to at least $8,000 “without regard to negligence or gross negligence or fault of any kind.” That matters on a road where more than half the crashes involve one vehicle and there may be no other driver to claim against. A claim for PIP benefits must be presented as soon as practicable and in every case within two years of the accident under c. 90, sec. 34M. See whether Massachusetts is a no-fault state.

Pain and suffering has a threshold. Under c. 231, sec. 6D, a person hurt in a motor vehicle crash in Massachusetts can recover for pain and suffering only if reasonable and necessary medical expenses are in excess of $2,000, or the injury is a death, the loss of a body member, permanent and serious disfigurement, a described loss of sight or hearing, or a fracture.

A passenger in a single vehicle crash may still have a claim. A single vehicle crash has no second driver, but a passenger hurt when the driver left the road can bring a negligence claim against that driver, and under c. 231, sec. 85 recovery is allowed as long as the injured person’s own negligence “was not greater than the total amount of negligence attributable to the person or persons against whom recovery is sought,” with damages reduced by their share. See how partial fault works.

A death opens a different claim. Under M.G.L. c. 229, sec. 2, the executor or administrator brings a wrongful death action within three years of the death, and punitive damages of not less than $5,000 are available where the death was caused by gross negligence or by malicious, willful, wanton or reckless conduct. See wrongful death claims in Massachusetts and when Massachusetts allows punitive damages.

Where the case is filed depends on where the parties live. M.G.L. c. 223, sec. 1 provides that an injury action is brought “in the county where one of them lives or has his usual place of business.” A crash in Sterling does not by itself put the case in Worcester County. The Worcester County venue guide lists the courts.

The deadline is three years. Under c. 260, sec. 2A, an action for personal injuries must be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrues.

What to Do After a Crash on Interstate 190

1. Get clear of the travel lanes if the vehicle moves, and stay off the roadway on foot. One of the road’s five fatal crashes was a pedestrian struck in the travel lanes, and another was a tractor-trailer striking two motorcycles parked at the roadside.
2. Turn on hazard lights and call 911. Most of the road north of Worcester is unlighted at night, and the State Police wrote 97.6 percent of the reports. Get the report number before the trooper leaves.
3. Get medical care the same day, even if the injury seems minor. PIP under c. 90, sec. 34A covers the first bills regardless of fault.
4. Photograph the scene, the vehicle, the road surface and the nearest mile marker or exit sign. In a single vehicle crash, the condition of the road and what was struck are often the only evidence.
5. Write down the lighting, the weather and the pavement. Nearly one crash in five on this road had snow, ice or slush on the pavement.
6. Get the names of witnesses, including anyone who stopped.
7. File the Massachusetts crash report within five days. Under c. 90, sec. 26, a driver in a crash where anyone was killed or injured, or with damage over $1,000 to any one vehicle or other property, must report in writing to the Registrar and send a copy to the police department with jurisdiction. See how to report a car accident in Massachusetts.
8. Notify your own insurer promptly, and do not give a recorded statement to another driver’s insurer before you understand the claim.

What These Numbers Do Not Show

• Risk per mile or per trip. The records count crashes, not traffic. Nothing here says a driver is more likely to crash on Interstate 190 than on another road.
• A fatal rate worth ranking. Five fatal crashes in three years is too few to rank.
• Ramps and connector roads. The 55 ramp crashes and the collector-distributor roads are left out, including the interchange with Interstate 290.
• Cause or speed. The records say what was struck, not why or how fast. They do not explain the single vehicle share or the rise after 2022.
• Anything after 2024. These are the three most recent complete years in the open data.

Key terms

• Single vehicle crash: a crash in which one vehicle strikes something other than another moving vehicle, such as a tree, a guardrail, a deer or the median barrier.
• Injury share: the percentage of recorded crashes in which at least one person had a non-fatal injury.
• First harmful event: the first thing a vehicle struck in a crash, as the officer recorded it.
• Interstate class: every crash MassDOT places on an Interstate highway in Massachusetts, used here for comparison.
• Road inventory name: the street name MassDOT attaches to a crash record when it maps the location.
• Personal injury protection (PIP): the part of a Massachusetts auto policy that pays medical bills and lost wages up to at least $8,000 for each person, whoever caused the crash.

For the wider picture, see the Worcester County crash data, the north central Massachusetts crash data, the Interstate 290 crash data and the Massachusetts deer crash data. If you live nearby, see car accident help in Worcester, and every town’s numbers are in the Massachusetts crash report.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many crashes happen on Interstate 190 in Massachusetts?

A: MassDOT records show 617 crashes on Interstate 190 from 2022 through 2024: 180, 214 and 223 by year. Five were fatal and 173 involved a non-fatal injury. The 55 crashes on ramps over the same period are not included.

Q: Is Interstate 190 more dangerous than other Massachusetts highways?

A: The records cannot say that, because they count crashes and not traffic. What they show is that 54.6 percent of crashes on Interstate 190 involved a single vehicle, against 29.8 percent on all Interstates, and that the difference holds on dry pavement in daylight and without deer strikes.

Q: Which town has the most Interstate 190 crashes?

A: Worcester, with 193 of the 617, followed by Sterling with 156. In Sterling the highway accounts for 27.3 percent of every crash in the town.

Q: Were the fatal crashes on Interstate 190 at night?

A: Yes. All five fatal crashes from 2022 through 2024 were in the dark on an unlighted stretch, in Leominster, West Boylston (two), Lancaster and Sterling. Two were head-on crashes.

Q: Are crashes on Interstate 190 going up?

A: The count rose from 180 in 2022 to 214 in 2023 and 223 in 2024, an increase of 23.9 percent, while crashes on all Massachusetts Interstates stayed about level. The records do not explain why.

Q: Who pays if I crash alone on Interstate 190?

A: Your own personal injury protection pays medical expenses and part of lost wages up to at least $8,000 regardless of fault under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A. A passenger hurt in a single vehicle crash may also have a negligence claim against the driver.

Q: How long do I have to bring a claim after a crash on Interstate 190?

A: An action for personal injuries must be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrues under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A. A claim for PIP benefits must be presented to the insurer as soon as practicable and within two years of the accident under c. 90, sec. 34M.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This page is general information about Massachusetts law and public crash data for educational purposes. It is not legal advice for your situation and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own case, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS.

Talking to a Lawyer

Most crashes on Interstate 190 involve one vehicle leaving the lane, often at night or on a winter road, so the questions afterward are usually about what your own policy pays, whether a passenger has a claim against the driver, and whether an injury clears the threshold for pain and suffering. If you were hurt, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free.