How Many Crashes Happen on Route 213 in Methuen?

From 2022 through 2024, MassDOT crash records place 309 crashes on Route 213, the Loop Connector between Interstate 93 and Interstate 495 in Methuen, 1 of them fatal and 74 with a non-fatal injury. Measured by how often a crash hurt someone, the road is ordinary: 23.9 percent, against 24.3 percent for the Interstates in Essex County. What sets it apart is rain. Twenty-six percent of its crashes happened on wet pavement, against 15.8 percent on the county’s Interstates, and on wet pavement 69 percent of its crashes were a single car leaving the lane, most often into the guardrail. That pattern ran through 2022 and 2023 and then nearly disappeared in 2024.

If you were hurt in a crash on Route 213 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 the officer recorded as involving only one vehicle in motion, such as a car striking a guardrail. The first harmful event is the first thing the vehicle struck, as the officer recorded it. Road surface is the condition the officer recorded for the pavement, such as dry, wet or snow. The road inventory name is the street name MassDOT attaches to a crash when it maps it; for Route 213 that name is Albert Slack Highway.

Where Route 213 Runs

Route 213 is a short divided highway that lies entirely inside Methuen, in Essex County. It links Interstate 93 at its west end with Interstate 495 at its east end, with interchanges at Route 28 (Broadway), Route 113 (Pleasant Street) and Howe Street along the way; those are the names on the ramps in the crash records. MassDOT’s road inventory carries it as Albert Slack Highway, and the record for its one fatal crash describes it as a freeway with full access control. Most of the crashes on it were recorded with a posted limit of 55 mph (196 of 309).

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 rather than the typed roadway field, because State Police reports on highways often leave the typed field blank.

1. The name was checked against the mile markers. Every crash the police mile-marked to Route 213 carries the name Albert Slack Highway. Only 10 of the 309 were mile-marked at all, so most were placed by exit or location.
2. Ramps were left out. Fifty-nine crashes on ramps named for Route 213 (15, 16 and 28 by year) are not in the totals.
3. The totals were reconciled. Every record is in Methuen, and the counts add up to the road total each year: 117 in 2022, 98 in 2023 and 94 in 2024. Every breakdown on this page adds up to 309.
4. Three comparison groups were pulled from the same data. All Interstate crashes in Massachusetts (41,258), all crashes MassDOT classes as freeways and expressways that are not Interstates (17,171), and all Interstate crashes in Essex County (3,996), which share Route 213’s weather and its police agency.

The Three-Year Record

Measure	Route 213	Essex County Interstates	All Interstates	Other freeways and expressways
Crashes, 2022 to 2024	309	3,996	41,258	17,171
Fatal crashes	1	18	156	87
Crashes with a non-fatal injury	74	972	9,524	4,167
Injury share	23.95%	24.32%	23.08%	24.27%
Wet road surface	26.21%	15.79%	17.17%	16.94%
Single vehicle crashes	40.78%	32.51%	29.84%	34.87%
Guardrail first struck	20.71%	11.49%	9.24%	11.67%

By year the road had 117, 98 and 94 crashes, a fall of 19.7 percent from 2022 to 2024, while Interstate crashes statewide went from 13,693 to 13,833. Injury crashes were 29, 23 and 22.

One fatal crash in three years is too few to rate. At the Interstate rate of 3.78 fatal crashes per 1,000, a road with 309 crashes would be expected to have about 1.2; at the rate for other freeways and expressways, 5.07 per 1,000, about 1.6.

Other measures sit close to the comparison groups:

• Rear-end crashes are 40.5 percent (125), against 41.3 percent on the county’s Interstates.
• Same-direction sideswipes are 12.9 percent (40), against 19.0 percent.
• Crashes in the dark on unlighted road are 17.8 percent (55), against 20.8 percent.
• Deer were the first thing struck in 6 crashes.
• The State Police wrote 282 of the 309 reports, 91.3 percent; Methuen police wrote 27.

Is the Wet Road Figure the Road or the Weather?

A wet-road share of 26.2 percent is ten points above the county’s Interstates. The obvious objection is the weather: a short road can have an unlucky run of rainy days. Three checks were run on it.

The same weather, the same years. Every comparison road in Essex County saw the same storms. The county’s Interstates recorded 15.8 percent of their crashes on wet pavement over the three years, and Route 213, inside the same county, recorded 26.2 percent.

What kind of crash it was. On dry pavement, Route 213 looks like any highway in the county: 26.4 percent of its dry-road crashes were single vehicle crashes (55 of 208), against 26.2 percent on the county’s Interstates (807 of 3,086). On wet pavement the picture changes:

Single vehicle crashes on wet pavement	Route 213	Essex County Interstates	All Interstates
Share of wet-road crashes	69.1% (56 of 81)	47.9% (302 of 631)	48.2% (3,416 of 7,082)
Share of all crashes	18.1% (56 of 309)	7.6% (302 of 3,996)	8.3% (3,416 of 41,258)

So the extra crashes are not rear-end crashes in rain traffic. They are cars leaving the lane alone on a wet road. Those 56 crashes are more than half of the road’s single vehicle total and almost all of the gap between Route 213 and the county.

Every year. This is where the figure changes shape.

Year	Route 213 crashes on wet pavement	Of which single vehicle	Essex County Interstates, wet share
2022	37 of 117 (31.6%)	26	12.5% (163 of 1,307)
2023	32 of 98 (32.7%)	23	21.3% (280 of 1,316)
2024	12 of 94 (12.8%)	7	13.7% (188 of 1,373)

In 2022 and 2023, Route 213’s wet share ran about a third of all its crashes, and well above the county’s Interstates in both years. In 2024 it fell to 12.8 percent, slightly below the county. Wet single vehicle crashes went from 26 and 23 to 7. That drop, 19 crashes, is most of the 23-crash fall in the road’s total from 2022 to 2024.

The records do not say why. They carry no paving, drainage or rainfall data, and this page offers no reason for the change. What they show is that the wet-road pattern was real in 2022 and 2023, held against the county’s own roads in the same weather, and did not appear in the 2024 records.

The Finding: Single Cars, Wet Pavement, the Guardrail

Looking at the 56 wet-road single vehicle crashes on their own:

1. What was struck. The guardrail was the first thing struck in 30 of the 56, and the median barrier in 7. Across the whole road the guardrail was the first harmful event in 64 crashes, 20.7 percent, against 11.5 percent on the county’s Interstates.
2. Which way the car was going. The officer recorded the vehicle travelling west, toward Interstate 93, in 35 of the 56, and east in 14. Westbound cars made up 81 of the road’s 126 single vehicle crashes in all.
3. What the officer recorded about the driver. “Driving too fast for conditions” appears as a contributing circumstance in 33 of the 56 reports, and exceeding the speed limit in 7. These are the officer’s entries on the report, not findings of fault by any court.
4. Light. Thirty-one of the 56 were in daylight, so this is not mainly a night pattern.
5. Injury. Ten of the 56 injured someone, 17.9 percent. Across all wet-road crashes on the road the injury share was 14.8 percent, lower than on dry pavement (26.9 percent). Many of these crashes ended against the rail without anyone hurt.

The sample is small, and the honest summary is narrow: on Route 213 in 2022 and 2023, a car alone on a wet road leaving its lane, usually westbound and usually into the guardrail, was a far more common crash than on the county’s other highways, and in 2024 it was not.

The One Fatal Crash

The one fatal crash was in April 2022, in the 5 a.m. hour, in daylight on a dry road in clear weather, near the ramp from Route 213 westbound to Interstate 93 northbound. The report records one vehicle, a light truck travelling west, leaving its lane, striking the guardrail and overturning, and lists exceeding the authorized speed limit as the driver’s contributing circumstance. The report records one death. It records what happened, not why, and this page adds nothing to it.

Route 213 Inside Methuen

Methuen recorded 3,409 crashes from 2022 through 2024, 8 of them fatal and 961 with an injury, according to the figures on the Methuen crash report. Route 213 accounts for 309 of those crashes, 9.1 percent of the city’s total, and 1 of its 8 fatal crashes.

The road appears on Methuen’s 2024 list of high-crash roads twice, as “Albert Slack Highway Route 213 westbound” at 18 and “eastbound” at 13, behind Interstate 93 northbound at 22. That list is built from the typed roadway field, which highway reports often leave blank. Counted by the inventory name, Route 213 had 94 crashes in Methuen in 2024, three times the 31 on the list, and more than any other road on it.

Route 213 also connects the region’s two big highways. The Interstate 93 crash data page covers the road it leaves at the west end, and the Interstate 495 crash data page the road it joins at the east end. The Merrimack Valley crash data page compares Methuen with Lawrence, Lowell, Haverhill and the surrounding towns, and the Essex County crash data page covers every community in the county. For the nearest cities with their own pages, see Lawrence car accident information and Haverhill car accident information.

Answer Capsule

MassDOT crash records for 2022 through 2024 place 309 crashes on Route 213 in Methuen, counted on its road inventory name, Albert Slack Highway, with 59 ramp crashes excluded: 117, 98 and 94 by year. One was fatal, a westbound light truck that struck the guardrail and overturned in April 2022. Seventy-four crashes, 23.9 percent, involved a non-fatal injury, against 24.3 percent on Essex County’s Interstates, so the road is ordinary on that measure. The difference is wet pavement: 26.2 percent of its crashes were on a wet road, against 15.8 percent on the county’s Interstates, and 56 of those 81 were single vehicle crashes, 18.1 percent of all its crashes against 7.6 percent in the county. On dry pavement its single vehicle share matched the county. The wet-road pattern held in 2022 and 2023 (37 and 32 wet-road crashes) and fell to 12 in 2024; the records give no cause. 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 213

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.” Under c. 90, sec. 34M, the claim for PIP benefits must be presented within two years from the date of the accident. A single car that slides into the rail is still covered by its own PIP. 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 causes death, or involves the loss of a body member, permanent and serious disfigurement, a described loss of sight or hearing, or a fracture.

Partial fault reduces, and does not always bar, 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. A passenger in a car that left the road on a wet surface may have a claim against the driver, and the driver’s speed for the conditions is the question that claim turns on. See how partial fault works.

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

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

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

What to Do After a Crash on Route 213

1. Get out of the travel lanes if the vehicle moves. A guardrail was the first thing struck in a fifth of this road’s crashes, and a car stopped against the rail sits beside a live lane.
2. Call 911. The State Police wrote 91 percent of the reports on this road. 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 road surface, the rail and the nearest exit sign. On a wet road, standing water or the condition of the pavement can matter, and few crashes here are mile-marked.
5. Write down the weather and the time. The report records them, but your own note made at the scene is the clearest record of what you saw.
6. Get the names of witnesses, including anyone who stopped.

Key terms

• Albert Slack Highway: the road inventory name MassDOT gives Route 213 in its crash records.
• Loop Connector: the common name for Route 213, which connects Interstate 93 and Interstate 495 inside Methuen.
• Injury share: the percentage of recorded crashes in which at least one person had a non-fatal injury.
• Single vehicle crash: a crash recorded as involving one vehicle in motion, such as a car striking a guardrail.
• Road surface: the pavement condition the officer recorded, such as dry, wet, snow or ice.
• Personal injury protection (PIP): no-fault coverage under c. 90, sec. 34A that pays medical bills and lost wages up to at least $8,000.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many crashes happen on Route 213 in Methuen?

A: MassDOT records show 309 crashes on Route 213 from 2022 through 2024: 117, 98 and 94 by year. One was fatal and 74 involved a non-fatal injury. The 59 crashes on its ramps over the same period are not included.

Q: Is Route 213 more dangerous than other Massachusetts highways?

A: The records cannot say that, because they count crashes and not traffic. A crash on Route 213 involved a non-fatal injury 23.9 percent of the time, close to the 24.3 percent on Essex County’s Interstates. The clear difference is wet pavement: in 2022 and 2023, single cars leaving the lane on a wet road were far more common there than on the county’s other highways.

Q: Why do so many Route 213 crashes happen in the rain?

A: The records do not give a reason. They show that 26.2 percent of crashes on the road were on wet pavement against 15.8 percent on Essex County’s Interstates in the same years, and that the extra crashes were mostly single vehicles striking the guardrail. In 2024 the wet-road share fell to 12.8 percent.

Q: Why does Route 213 look small on Methuen’s list of high-crash roads?

A: Town road lists are built from the typed roadway field, which State Police highway reports often leave blank, and the list splits the road into two directions. Counted by the inventory name, Albert Slack Highway, the road had 94 crashes in Methuen in 2024, against 31 on the list.

Q: Does PIP cover me if I slid into the guardrail on my own?

A: Personal injury protection under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A pays without regard to fault, so a single vehicle crash is covered by the policy on the car, subject to its terms. The PIP claim must be presented within two years from the date of the accident under sec. 34M.

Q: Which court hears a case from a Route 213 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 Methuen does not decide it.

Q: How long do I have to bring a claim after a crash on Route 213?

A: An action of tort 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 within two years from the date 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

A crash on a short connector can still involve a driver’s own insurer, a passenger’s claim against that driver, and a question of how the road was that day. If you were hurt on Route 213, 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 the law, not legal advice about your situation.