How Many Crashes Happen on Route 146 in Massachusetts?

From 2022 through 2024, MassDOT crash records place 562 crashes on Route 146 in Massachusetts, 3 of them fatal and 133 with a non-fatal injury. As a whole the road is ordinary: its injury share is within half a point of the figure for its class of road. What stands out is that the twenty miles from Worcester to the Rhode Island line crash in three different ways. In Worcester and Millbury the typical crash is on a lit, barrier-lined highway. In Sutton it is a rear-end collision near a traffic signal. In Uxbridge six in ten crashes involve one vehicle, and one in four is a deer.

If you were hurt in a crash on Route 146 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.

A few terms are used throughout. The injury share is the percentage of recorded crashes in which at least one person had a non-fatal injury. A single vehicle crash is one where a vehicle hits something other than another moving vehicle: a guardrail, a deer, a median barrier. A rear-end crash is one where the front of one vehicle strikes the back of another traveling the same way. The principal arterial class is the road-inventory category that Route 146 belongs to, used here as the comparison group. The road inventory name is the street name MassDOT attaches to a crash when it maps it, which is different from the roadway text an officer types.

Where Route 146 Runs

Route 146 leaves Worcester near Interstate 290, crosses the Massachusetts Turnpike in Millbury, and runs south through Sutton, a corner of Northbridge, Uxbridge, a corner of Douglas and the edge of Millville to the Rhode Island line, where it continues toward Providence. The road inventory carries it under five names, and this page counts all of them:

1. Purple Heart Highway, in Worcester and Millbury, with a few records farther south.
2. Worcester Providence Turnpike, in Sutton and Millbury.
3. Route 146, in Sutton.
4. Worcester Providence Road, two records.
5. Providence Pike, in Uxbridge, Douglas and Millville.

This page divides the road by town into three sections. The northern section is Worcester and Millbury. The Sutton section is the town of Sutton. The southern section is everything below Sutton, which in the records is almost entirely Uxbridge.

How These Numbers Were Counted

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

The five names were read from the records, not from a map. Every crash the police mile-marked to Route 146 was listed with the inventory name attached to it. In 2023, 106 of 110 mile-marked Route 146 crashes carried one of the five names, and in 2024 it was 75 of 80. The rest were on ramps or had no name attached.

Two things are left out on purpose. Crashes on ramps carry ramp names in the inventory, and 87 crashes over the three years were on ramps named for Route 146. Those are not in the totals below. Quaker Highway in Uxbridge is Route 146A, a separate road classed as a minor arterial, and is not counted.

The town totals in each year add up exactly to the road total, and the three sections add up to the same figure.

The Three-Year Record

Measure	Route 146	All principal arterial crashes	All Massachusetts crashes
Crashes, 2022 to 2024	562	44,448	405,242
Fatal crashes	3	157	1,087
Fatal crashes per 1,000 crashes	5.34	3.53	2.68
Crashes with a non-fatal injury	133	10,374	92,761
Injury share	23.67%	23.34%	22.89%

By year, Route 146 had 176 crashes in 2022, 215 in 2023 and 171 in 2024. Injury crashes were 39, 54 and 40.

The fatal rate in the table should not be read as a finding. It rests on three crashes. At the rate for the road’s class, 562 crashes would be expected to include about two fatal ones, and the difference between two and three is not something three years of data can interpret. The three are described below because each was a real event, not because they form a pattern.

What does differ from the class, by a wide margin, is the kind of crash:

• Single vehicle crashes are 45.0 percent of Route 146 crashes (253 of 562), against 22.6 percent for the class.
• A deer was the first thing struck in 12.8 percent (72 of 562), against 3.5 percent.
• 21.4 percent happened in the dark on unlighted road (120 of 562), against 9.1 percent.
• Rear-end crashes are 26.5 percent (149 of 562), against 35.4 percent.
• A large truck or bus was involved in 5.3 percent (30 crashes marked federally reportable), against 2.3 percent.

The State Police wrote 491 of the 562 reports, or 87.4 percent.

Three stretches, three kinds of crash

	North: Worcester and Millbury	Sutton	South: Uxbridge to the state line
Crashes	212	206	144
Fatal crashes	0	1	2
Injury crashes	49	40	44
Injury share	23.1%	19.4%	30.6%
Single vehicle	36.3%	43.2%	60.4%
Rear-end	27.8%	33.5%	14.6%
First event a deer	4.7%	12.1%	25.7%
Dark, road not lighted	5.7%	26.2%	37.5%
At a traffic signal	10	36	0

The northern section: a lit highway with a barrier down the middle

Worcester and Millbury recorded 212 crashes, 80 and 132. After dark this is a lit road: 58 crashes were recorded in the dark on lighted roadway and only 12 on unlighted road. The object a car is most likely to hit here is the road’s own hardware. A median barrier was the first thing struck in 28 crashes, 13.2 percent, against 1.9 percent for the class, and a guardrail in 20 more. Nobody died on this section in the three years.

The count moved more here than anywhere else on the road: 64 crashes in 2022, 91 in 2023 and 57 in 2024. The records do not say why, and this page does not guess.

Sutton: the traffic signals

Sutton recorded 206 crashes on Route 146, almost as many as Worcester and Millbury together, and steadily: 67, 73 and 66.

The Sutton section is the only part of the road where crashes happen at traffic signals in number. Thirty-six of its crashes were recorded at a traffic control signal and 30 at a four-way intersection. The typed roadway field names Boston Road on 13 of those 36 reports and Galaxy Pass on one. The southern section recorded none at a signal.

The pattern around it is what a signal on a fast road produces. Rear-end crashes are 33.5 percent of Sutton’s total, the highest share of the three sections, and 19 of its 40 injury crashes were rear-end. The posted limit recorded on the reports changes within the town: 65 on 67 crashes, 55 on 51, 50 on 25 and 40 on 37. The 4 p.m. hour holds 22 crashes, more than any other hour.

One of Sutton’s crashes was fatal. In February 2024, in the 6 p.m. hour, a vehicle struck a pedestrian on a stretch recorded as dark and unlighted.

For the town, Route 146 is most of the story. Sutton recorded 530 crashes on all its roads in the three years. The 206 on Route 146 are 38.9 percent of them.

The southern section: one car, in the dark, and often a deer

Below Sutton the records show 144 crashes: 136 in Uxbridge, 5 in Douglas, 2 in Millville and 1 in Northbridge. The recorded speed limit was 65 on 125 of them.

Eighty-seven of the 144, or 60.4 percent, were single vehicle crashes. A deer was the first thing struck in 37, which is one crash in four. Fifty-four, or 37.5 percent, happened in the dark where the road is not lighted. Only 21 were rear-end.

The injury share here is the highest on the road, 30.6 percent, and it comes from 44 crashes, so it is a small number. It is worth one more step. Deer strikes rarely injure anyone: 3 of the 37 did. Set those aside and 41 of the remaining 107 crashes on this section involved an injury, or 38.3 percent. A driver who leaves a 65 mile an hour road in the dark and hits a tree, an embankment or a guardrail is hurt more often than a driver bumped at a signal. The count is too small to rank against other roads, and it is consistent with what faster single vehicle crashes do elsewhere in the state’s records.

Both of the section’s fatal crashes were in Uxbridge in 2022. Each was recorded as a head-on collision between two vehicles, one in April in the 1 a.m. hour and one in October in the 10 p.m. hour. The records do not say how two vehicles came to meet head-on, and this page does not supply a reason.

When the deer are on the road

The 72 deer crashes on Route 146 are not spread evenly through the year. October and November hold 31 of them. May and June hold 23. January through April hold 4. The statewide pattern is on the Massachusetts deer crash data page.

Town by Town

Community	Route 146 crashes	Fatal	Injury	All crashes in the community	Route 146 share
Sutton	206	1	40	530	38.9%
Uxbridge	136	2	40	890	15.3%
Millbury	132	0	27	849	15.5%
Worcester	80	0	22	15,598	0.5%
Douglas	5	0	4	382	1.3%
Millville	2	0	0	21	not meaningful
Northbridge	1	0	0	669	0.1%

Uxbridge recorded five fatal crashes on all its roads in the three years, and two were on Route 146. Sutton recorded three, one of them on Route 146. Town pages with every road’s numbers are at Worcester, Millbury and Uxbridge in the Massachusetts crash report.

Answer Capsule

MassDOT crash records for 2022 through 2024 place 562 crashes on Route 146 in Massachusetts, counted on five road-inventory names from Worcester to the Rhode Island line, with ramps excluded: 176, 215 and 171 by year. Three were fatal and 133, or 23.7 percent, involved a non-fatal injury, about the same share as all principal arterial crashes (23.3 percent). The road has three distinct sections. Worcester and Millbury recorded 212 crashes on a lit highway where a median barrier was the first thing struck in 13.2 percent. Sutton recorded 206, which is 38.9 percent of every crash in the town, 36 of them at a traffic signal, and a third of them rear-end. Uxbridge and the towns to the state line recorded 144, of which 60.4 percent were single vehicle crashes, 25.7 percent began with a deer and 37.5 percent happened in the dark on unlighted road. Deer crashes peak in October and November and again in May and June. Two fatal crashes were head-on collisions in Uxbridge in 2022 and one was a pedestrian struck in Sutton in 2024. 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 Route 146

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.” On a road where nearly half the crashes involve one vehicle, that is the coverage most people on it will use. A passenger in a car that hit a barrier has PIP, and may also have a claim against the driver. See whether Massachusetts is a no-fault state.

A pedestrian is covered by the vehicle that struck them. The same section defines PIP to include “any pedestrian struck by the insured’s or obligor’s motor vehicle.” A person on foot does not need a policy of their own to have the first bills paid. See pedestrian accident rights in Massachusetts.

Fault is shared by percentage. 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. In a rear-end crash at a signal the question starts with the driver behind, and a sudden stop, a missing brake light or a lane change can move the percentages. See how partial fault works.

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 exceed $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.

The rules change at the state line. Route 146 does not end in Uxbridge. It continues into Rhode Island, and the Massachusetts statute says in terms that its trade of PIP for the right to sue applies to “an accident occurring within this commonwealth,” and that “no such exemption from tort liability shall apply in the case of an accident occurring outside the commonwealth” (c. 90, sec. 34M). A Massachusetts driver hurt a mile past the line is not limited by the Massachusetts exemption in the claim against the other driver, and the same section delays PIP payments on a Massachusetts policy where the injured person sues in tort over the out-of-state crash, until a settlement or judgment. The crash counts on this page stop at the line as well. See out-of-state drivers and border towns.

Where the case is filed depends on where the parties live, not where the crash was. M.G.L. c. 223, sec. 1 provides that a transitory action, which includes an injury claim, “shall… be brought in the county where one of them lives or has his usual place of business.” A Providence commuter hit in Sutton by a Worcester driver would look to Worcester County because the Worcester driver lives there, not because Sutton is in it. If neither party lives in Massachusetts, the statute allows the action in any 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 Route 146

1. Get out of the travel lanes if the vehicle moves. South of Sutton more than a third of crashes happen in the dark with no street lighting, and a stopped car is hard to see at 65 miles an hour.
2. Call 911. The State Police wrote seven in eight reports on this road. Ask which agency is writing the report and get the report number before the officer 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 vehicles and the nearest mile marker, exit sign or cross street. At a signal, photograph the signal heads and the lane you were in.
5. Get the names of witnesses. In a rear-end crash at a light, the driver two cars back often saw more than either driver involved.
6. If a deer was involved, say so in the crash report and to your insurer. If you swerved and hit a guardrail or another car instead, say that too, because the record will otherwise show only what the car struck.
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 more than $1,000 in damage 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 one section than another.
• A fatal rate worth ranking. Three fatal crashes in three years is too few to compare with any other road.
• Ramps and interchanges. The 87 crashes on ramps named for Route 146 are left out, so the interchanges are undercounted here.
• Crashes with no mapped road name. A crash the state could not attach to an inventory name is not in these totals, so the true count is somewhat higher.
• Cause. The first harmful event says what the vehicle hit, not why. The records do not say why the northern count rose in 2023 or how the two head-on crashes in Uxbridge happened.
• Rhode Island. The data ends at the state line.
• Anything after 2024. These are the three most recent complete years in the open data.

For the wider picture, see the Worcester County crash data. For other roads counted the same way, see Route 2, Route 3, Interstate 195 and Interstate 91, and for the highway Route 146 meets in Worcester, Interstate 290. If you live in Worcester, see car accident help in Worcester.

Key terms

• Injury share: the percentage of recorded crashes in which at least one person had a non-fatal injury.
• Single vehicle crash: a crash in which one vehicle strikes something other than another moving vehicle, such as a barrier, a guardrail or an animal.
• Rear-end crash: a crash in which the front of one vehicle strikes the back of another traveling in the same direction.
• Principal arterial: the road-inventory class for major through roads that are not Interstates; Route 146 is in it for its whole length.
• 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many crashes happen on Route 146 in Massachusetts?

A: MassDOT records show 562 crashes on Route 146 from 2022 through 2024: 176, 215 and 171 by year. Three were fatal and 133 involved a non-fatal injury. Crashes on ramps, 87 over the same period, are not included.

Q: Is Route 146 more dangerous than other Massachusetts roads?

A: The records do not support that. The share of crashes with an injury, 23.7 percent, is about the same as the 23.3 percent for all roads in its class. The three fatal crashes in three years are too few to compare. The records count crashes and not traffic, so they cannot give a risk per mile or per trip.

Q: Which town has the most Route 146 crashes?

A: Sutton, with 206 in three years, followed by Uxbridge with 136, Millbury with 132 and Worcester with 80. In Sutton the road accounts for 38.9 percent of all crashes recorded in the town.

Q: Where are the traffic signals on Route 146, and do they matter?

A: In the crash records, crashes at a traffic signal on Route 146 are concentrated in Sutton: 36 of the town’s 206, with Boston Road named on 13 of those reports. Rear-end crashes are a third of Sutton’s total, the highest share on the road.

Q: How common are deer crashes on Route 146?

A: A deer was the first thing struck in 72 of the 562 crashes, or 12.8 percent, against 3.5 percent for roads in the same class. South of Sutton it was 37 of 144, about one in four. October and November had 31 of the 72 and May and June had 23.

Q: What if my crash was on Route 146 just over the line in Rhode Island?

A: The Massachusetts rule that shields the other driver from suit for PIP-covered losses does not apply: c. 90, sec. 34M says the exemption does not apply to an accident outside the Commonwealth. The same section holds back PIP payments where the injured person sues in tort over that crash, until a settlement or judgment. Which state’s law governs the rest of the claim is a question to raise with a lawyer early.

Q: Which court hears a case from a Route 146 crash?

A: Under M.G.L. c. 223, sec. 1, an injury action is brought in a county where one of the parties lives or has a usual place of business. The location of the crash does not decide it. If neither party lives in Massachusetts, the action may be brought in any county.

Q: How long do I have to bring a claim after a crash on Route 146?

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

Route 146 is a different road in Millbury, in Sutton and in Uxbridge, and what happened in a crash on it depends on which one you were on: a barrier, a signal, or a dark stretch with a deer in it. If you were hurt, the questions worth asking early are whose insurance pays first, whether anyone else shares the fault, and which deadlines are already running. Call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free.