How Many Crashes Happen on Riverdale Street in West Springfield?

From 2022 through 2024, MassDOT crash records place 727 crashes on Riverdale Street in West Springfield, 22.2 percent of every crash in the town, with 1 fatal crash and 148 crashes that injured someone. No other named road in West Springfield comes close: Memorial Avenue is second with 322. What sets the road apart is the direction of travel. More than half of its crashes, 410 of 727, were rear-end crashes or sideswipes between vehicles moving the same way, against about 42 percent on roads of its class across Massachusetts, and that share held at 56 percent in each of the three years.

If you were hurt in a crash on Riverdale Street 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.

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 Riverdale Street and limited to West Springfield. Riverdale Street carries U.S. Route 5 along the Connecticut River, but only 9 West Springfield crash records in three years are mile-marked to that route, so the inventory name is the only way to count the whole road. The same name appears on 1 Methuen record and 3 Agawam records, which are not counted here.

Three checks were run before any number was used:

1. The road was limited to one town. Every crash counted here has West Springfield as its city or town.
2. The totals were reconciled. Riverdale Street plus every other West Springfield crash equals the town total in each year: 214 plus 778 is 992 in 2022, 211 plus 793 is 1,004 in 2023, and 302 plus 979 is 1,281 in 2024. The three-year total, 3,277, matches the West Springfield crash report. Every breakdown on this page adds up to 727.
3. The comparison groups hold the police department constant. West Springfield police wrote 721 of the 727 reports. The town’s other streets, written by the same department, are the main comparison, alongside every crash on roads of the same class in Hampden County and across Massachusetts.

The Three-Year Record

Measure	Riverdale Street	West Springfield’s other streets	Same road class, Hampden County	Same road class, statewide
Crashes, 2022 to 2024	727	2,550	10,172	89,343
Fatal crashes	1	5	31	223
Crashes with a non-fatal injury	148	534	2,743	21,317
Injury share	20.4%	20.9%	27.0%	23.9%
Rear-end and same-direction sideswipe	56.4%	41.0%	44.8%	42.2%
Hit and run share	14.4%	12.2%	10.2%	7.8%

It was the top inventory name in West Springfield in all three years:

West Springfield road	2022	2023	2024	Three years
Riverdale Street	214	211	302	727
Memorial Avenue	104	101	117	322
Interstate 91	83	85	71	239
Westfield Street	75	54	65	194

The West Springfield crash report lists Riverdale Street first too, with 171 crashes in 2024 plus 17 under a second spelling, because that list is built from the typed roadway field, which splits one road across several entries. Counted by the inventory name, the 2024 figure is 302.

What the crashes look like:

• Rear-end crashes are 34.9 percent (254), same-direction sideswipes 21.5 percent (156), angle crashes 17.3 percent (126) and single-vehicle crashes 11.0 percent (80).
• Almost half, 344, were not at a junction. Another 140 were at a T-intersection, 89 at a four-way intersection, 68 at a traffic circle, 38 on an off-ramp and 16 on an on-ramp.
• A traffic signal controlled the location in 239 crashes, 32.9 percent, and a yield sign in 77.
• 74.0 percent happened in daylight (538). Only 9 were in the dark on an unlighted stretch.
• The afternoon is the busiest time. The six hours from noon to 6 p.m. hold 393 crashes, 54.1 percent, and the noon hour alone holds 74.
• Wet pavement was recorded in 119 crashes, 16.4 percent.

Most Crashes Are Between Cars Going the Same Way

A rear-end crash and a same-direction sideswipe have one thing in common: both vehicles were traveling the same direction. One follows too closely or does not stop in time; the other changes lanes into a car already there. On Riverdale Street those two types make up 56.4 percent of all crashes. On roads of the same class statewide they are 42.2 percent, on the same class in Hampden County 44.8 percent, and on West Springfield’s other streets 41.0 percent.

The pattern is steady. It was 56.5 percent in 2022, 56.9 percent in 2023 and 56.0 percent in 2024.

The other side of the ledger is just as clear. Angle crashes, the kind where vehicles meet at an intersection while crossing or turning, are 17.3 percent of Riverdale Street crashes against 27.3 percent for the class. Only 12.2 percent of Riverdale Street crashes were at a four-way intersection, against 21.0 percent for the class. Single-vehicle crashes, where a car leaves the road or strikes an object, are 11.0 percent against 15.2 percent.

Traffic circles are the other feature. Sixty-eight Riverdale Street crashes, 9.4 percent, were recorded at a traffic circle, against 2.4 percent for the class. Sixty-five of those records name only Riverdale Street, and the three that name a junction point to U.S. Route 20. Among the ramp crashes, the records that name a ramp point to the Interstate 91 ramps and the Route 147 ramps at the Memorial Bridge. Crashes recorded under the rotaries’ own inventory names, such as Memorial Bridge Rotary, are not counted on this page.

Is Riverdale Street More Dangerous Than Other West Springfield Streets?

The records cannot answer that, because they count crashes and not traffic, and Riverdale Street carries a U.S. route through the town. What they can test is whether a crash there hurts people more or less often than a crash elsewhere.

The injury share on Riverdale Street is 20.4 percent, about the same as the 20.9 percent on West Springfield’s other streets and below the 23.9 percent for the road class statewide. Two tests show why it sits below the class:

1. The crash mix. Same-direction sideswipes rarely injure anyone (9.6 percent here, 9.7 percent for the class), and Riverdale Street has a lot of them. Applying the statewide class injury rate for each type of crash to Riverdale Street’s own mix predicts about 153 injury crashes. The records show 148.
2. Low posted speeds. Ninety-three records, 12.8 percent, carry a posted speed of 15 miles per hour or less, against 8.0 percent on the town’s other streets and 5.2 percent for the class statewide. Only 6 of those 93 crashes injured anyone. Counting only crashes posted above 15 miles per hour, Riverdale Street’s injury share is 23.9 percent (124 of 519), against 23.2 percent on West Springfield’s other streets and 25.0 percent for the class.

Above 15 miles per hour, then, a crash on Riverdale Street injures someone at about the rate of a crash anywhere else in the town. The town as a whole records a lower injury share than roads of the same class across Hampden County, 20.8 percent against 27.0 percent, which is a West Springfield pattern and not a Riverdale Street one.

Answer Capsule

MassDOT crash records for 2022 through 2024 place 727 crashes on Riverdale Street (U.S. Route 5) in West Springfield, counted on the road inventory name and limited to the town: 214, 211 and 302 by year, 22.2 percent of West Springfield’s 3,277 crashes and more than twice the next named road, Memorial Avenue (322). One was fatal, a motorcyclist alone at night in April 2022, and 148 involved a non-fatal injury, 20.4 percent, about the same as the town’s other streets (20.9 percent). The road’s distinguishing feature is crash type: rear-end crashes and same-direction sideswipes are 56.4 percent of its crashes, against 42.2 percent on roads of its class statewide and 41.0 percent on West Springfield’s other streets, and the share was 56 percent in every year. Hit and run was recorded in 14.4 percent of crashes, against 7.8 percent for the class. A claim from a crash on the road must be started within three years under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A.

Why 2024 Jumped

Riverdale Street went from 211 crashes in 2023 to 302 in 2024, a rise of 43.1 percent. Read alone, that looks like a road getting worse. It is not only the road.

• The whole town rose. West Springfield recorded 1,004 crashes in 2023 and 1,281 in 2024, up 27.6 percent. The town’s streets other than Riverdale Street rose from 793 to 979, up 23.5 percent.
• The region did not. Crashes on roads of Riverdale Street’s class in Hampden County fell from 3,646 to 2,964, and statewide crashes were flat (135,326 and 135,420).
• It is not a mapping change. West Springfield records with no inventory name were 11, 11 and 8 in the three years, so crashes did not move from unnamed to named.
• It is not the rotaries. Leaving out the traffic circle records, Riverdale Street still rose from 192 to 270.

The records show a town-wide rise in recorded crashes in 2024 and do not explain it. The road’s share of the town’s crashes moved from 21.0 percent in 2023 to 23.6 percent in 2024.

Hit and Run

West Springfield records hit and run more often than roads of its class do statewide. On Riverdale Street, 105 of 727 crashes, 14.4 percent, were coded as hit and run. On the town’s other streets the figure is 12.2 percent, for roads of the same class in Hampden County 10.2 percent, and statewide 7.8 percent. See the Massachusetts hit-and-run crash data for how this compares across the state.

The One Fatal Crash

In three years, one crash on Riverdale Street was fatal. On April 23, 2022, in the 10 p.m. hour, a motorcyclist traveling north crashed alone, first striking a curb, on a dry roadway in the dark on an unlighted stretch. The report codes the driver, aged 21 to 24, as having exceeded the authorized speed limit. At the road class rate of 2.50 fatal crashes per 1,000, a road with 727 crashes would be expected to have about 2, so one is not a figure to rank.

Pedestrians and Bicyclists

Ten crashes involved a pedestrian and 4 involved a bicyclist. Six of the pedestrian crashes and all 4 bicyclist crashes were in 2024.

The Law That Applies to a Crash on Riverdale Street

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

Changing lanes requires checking first. Under M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 4A, where a road is divided into lanes, a driver must keep the vehicle “entirely within a single lane” and “shall not move from the lane in which he is driving until he has first ascertained if such movement can be made with safety.” On a road where one crash in five is a same-direction sideswipe, that sentence often frames the question of fault. See how fault is determined after a Massachusetts car accident.

Partial fault reduces recovery. Under c. 231, sec. 85, a person can recover as long as their own negligence “was not greater than the total amount of negligence attributable to the person or persons against whom recovery is sought,” and the damages are reduced by their share. Rear-end crashes turn on following distance and attention; sideswipes turn on who left their lane. See comparative negligence in Massachusetts.

Leaving after a collision is a crime, even with no injury. Under c. 90, sec. 24(2)(a), a driver who goes away after knowingly colliding with or otherwise causing injury to any other vehicle or property, without stopping and making known their name, residence and the registration number of the vehicle, faces a fine of not less than $20 nor more than $200, or imprisonment for not less than two weeks nor more than two years, or both. See the Massachusetts hit-and-run penalties.

Report the crash, including a hit and run. 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 within five days and send a copy to the police department with jurisdiction. The police department “shall accept a report filed by an owner or operator whose vehicle has been damaged in an accident in which another person has unlawfully left the scene.” See how to report a car accident in Massachusetts.

A hit-and-run injury is covered by your own policy. Under c. 175, sec. 113L, every Massachusetts auto policy must include coverage for people legally entitled to recover from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles “and hit-and-run motor vehicles because of bodily injury.” See uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

Your own policy pays the first medical bills. Under 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.” 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 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. See how pain and suffering is calculated in Massachusetts.

Where the case is filed depends on where the parties live. Under c. 223, sec. 1, an action is brought “in the county where one of them lives or has his usual place of business.” A crash in West Springfield does not by itself put the case in Hampden County. The western Massachusetts venue guide lists the courts.

The deadline is three years. Under c. 260, sec. 2A, actions of tort “shall be commenced only within three years next after the cause of action accrues.”

What to Do After a Crash on Riverdale Street

1. Call 911 if anyone is hurt, and call West Springfield police for any crash where the other driver will not exchange information. West Springfield police wrote 721 of the 727 reports on this road.
2. Note which lane each vehicle was in before the cars are moved, and photograph where they came to rest. In a sideswipe, lane position is usually the whole question.
3. Get the other driver’s name, address, registration number and insurer. Section 24(2)(a) requires a driver who hits another vehicle to make known their name, residence and registration number.
4. 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.
5. Note exactly where it happened, including the nearest cross street, ramp, rotary or business entrance. Most records say only “Riverdale Street,” so your own notes may be the clearest record of where.
6. Get the names of witnesses, and look for any camera facing the spot before footage is overwritten.
7. File the Massachusetts crash report within five days if anyone was hurt or damage to any one vehicle tops $1,000, under c. 90, sec. 26.
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 Riverdale Street than on another road.
• Why 2024 rose. The rise was town-wide and the records give no cause.
• Which rotary. Most traffic circle records name only Riverdale Street.
• A fatal rate worth ranking. One fatal crash in three years is too few to rank.
• Crashes recorded under other names, including the rotaries’ own names and the Interstate 91 ramps where they carry their own inventory names.
• Anything after 2024. These are the three most recent complete years in the open data.

Key terms

• Same-direction crash: a rear-end crash or a sideswipe between two vehicles traveling the same way.
• Injury share: the percentage of recorded crashes in which at least one person had a non-fatal injury.
• Posted speed: the speed limit the officer recorded for the place the crash happened.
• Hit and run: a crash in which a driver involved left without stopping and identifying themselves, as recorded on the report.
• Road class: MassDOT’s functional class for a road; Riverdale Street is in the class for urban principal arterials, used here for comparison.
• Road inventory name: the street name MassDOT attaches to a crash record when it maps the location.

For the wider picture, see the Memorial Drive crash data in Chicopee, the Interstate 91 crash data, the Interstate 291 crash data and the Hampden County crash data. If you live nearby, see car accident help in West Springfield, and every town’s numbers are in the Massachusetts crash report.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many crashes happen on Riverdale Street in West Springfield?

A: MassDOT records show 727 crashes on Riverdale Street in West Springfield from 2022 through 2024: 214, 211 and 302 by year. That is 22.2 percent of all crashes in the town. One was fatal and 148 involved a non-fatal injury.

Q: What is the busiest crash road in West Springfield?

A: Riverdale Street, with 727 crashes in three years, more than twice Memorial Avenue’s 322. The records count crashes, not traffic, so they cannot say which road is most dangerous per driver.

Q: What kind of crashes happen most on Riverdale Street?

A: Rear-end crashes (34.9 percent) and same-direction sideswipes (21.5 percent). Together they are 56.4 percent of the road’s crashes, against 42.2 percent on roads of the same class statewide.

Q: Why did Riverdale Street crashes jump in 2024?

A: The records show the whole town rose: West Springfield went from 1,004 crashes in 2023 to 1,281 in 2024, while roads of the same class in Hampden County fell. The data does not give a cause.

Q: Who is at fault in a lane-change crash on Riverdale Street?

A: It depends on the facts. M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 4A requires a driver to stay within a single lane and not move from it until they have first ascertained that the move can be made with safety, and c. 231, sec. 85 reduces any recovery by the injured person’s own share of fault.

Q: Which court hears a case from a Riverdale Street crash?

A: Under M.G.L. c. 223, sec. 1, an action is brought in a county where one of the parties lives or has a usual place of business. The location of the crash in West Springfield does not decide it.

Q: How long do I have to bring a claim after a crash on Riverdale Street?

A: Actions of tort must be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrues under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A.

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 Riverdale Street are rear-end crashes and lane-change sideswipes between cars going the same way, and the questions afterward are usually about following distance, who left their lane, insurance 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.