How Many Crashes Happen on Route 44 in Massachusetts, From Seekonk to Plymouth?

From 2022 through 2024, MassDOT crash records place 2,379 crashes on Route 44 between the Rhode Island line in Seekonk and Route 3 in Plymouth, five of them fatal. As a whole the road is ordinary for its class: 21.5 percent of its crashes injured someone, against 23.3 percent on other Massachusetts principal arterials, and its fatal rate is lower. What sets Route 44 apart is one junction. The Middleborough Rotary, where Route 44 meets Routes 18 and 28, recorded 388 crashes in those three years, about one in every fifteen traffic circle crashes in the state, and most of them were low-speed rear-end and sideswipe collisions.

If you were hurt in a crash on Route 44 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 Route 44 Runs

Route 44 crosses southeastern Massachusetts from west to east. It enters from Rhode Island in Seekonk as Taunton Avenue, runs through Rehoboth and a corner of Dighton as Winthrop Street, passes through Taunton on Winthrop Street and Dean Street, and continues through Raynham as New State Highway past the interchange with Route 24. East of Raynham it runs through Middleborough, where it meets Interstate 495, follows Harding Street into the rotary, and then through Carver, Plympton and Kingston to its interchange with Route 3 in Plymouth. Seekonk, Rehoboth, Dighton, Taunton and Raynham are in Bristol County; Middleborough, Carver, Plympton, Kingston and Plymouth are in Plymouth County.

That makes Route 44 three different roads under one number: a signalized commercial and residential street in the west, a busy shopping strip in Raynham, and a highway posted at 65 miles per hour east of Middleborough, with the rotary in between.

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, the street name MassDOT attaches to a crash when it maps the location, rather than the roadway description an officer types into the report.

1. Six names were used, each only in its Route 44 towns. Taunton Avenue in Seekonk, Winthrop Street in Rehoboth, Dighton and Taunton, Dean Street in Taunton, New State Highway in Raynham, Harding Street in Middleborough (the stretch just west of the rotary, which officers describe as Route 44), and the name Route 44 from Raynham to Plymouth. Streets with the same names elsewhere in Massachusetts are not counted.
2. Ramps and side streets were left out, including the ramps to Route 24, Interstate 495 and Route 3, and streets officers described as being at Route 44.
3. The sections are defined by town, not by name. In 2022 Raynham’s Route 44 crashes were split between the names Route 44 (120) and New State Highway (47); from 2023 they all carry New State Highway (136 and 166). Counted by name, New State Highway appears to triple. Counted by town, Raynham’s Route 44 total is flat: 167, 136 and 166.
4. The rotary was checked by location. Crashes at the Middleborough Rotary are split between records named for the rotary (80, 16 and 26 by year) and Route 44 records coded as a traffic circle (41, 115 and 110). The coordinates on all 388 records fall at the same point, so this page counts them together as the rotary. The 122 records named for the rotary are not part of the 2,379 road total.
5. The totals were reconciled. The town counts add up exactly to the road total in each year: 718 in 2022, 817 in 2023 and 844 in 2024.
6. The comparison is the road’s own class. MassDOT classes every Route 44 record counted here as a principal arterial, so the main benchmark is all 44,448 Massachusetts crashes on principal arterials over the same years.

The Three-Year Record

Measure	Route 44	Massachusetts principal arterials
Crashes, 2022 to 2024	2,379	44,448
Fatal crashes	5	157
Fatal crashes per 1,000	2.10	3.53
Crashes with a non-fatal injury	512	10,374
Injury share	21.5%	23.3%

Severity is not the story. The injury share, the percentage of crashes in which at least one person had a non-fatal injury, is 21.5 percent on Route 44, a little below the 23.3 percent for principal arterials and the 22.9 percent for all Massachusetts crashes. At the class rate, 2,379 crashes would be expected to include about eight fatal ones; Route 44 recorded five, in which six people died. Five fatal crashes is too few to rank the road on, and this page does not call Route 44 safer or more dangerous than other roads.

The four parts of the road look very different:

Section	Crashes	Fatal	Injury share	Most common crash
Seekonk, Rehoboth, Dighton, Taunton	1,133	4	18.8%	Rear-end, 28.2%
Raynham (New State Highway)	469	0	26.4%	Angle, 38.2%
Middleborough	673	0	21.7%	Rear-end, 53.5%
Carver, Plympton, Kingston, Plymouth	104	1	27.9%	Single vehicle, 61.5%

The Middleborough Rotary

The rotary is where Route 44’s crash record concentrates. Counting both names at the same location, it recorded 388 crashes from 2022 through 2024 (121, 131 and 136 by year). That is 13.6 percent of every crash recorded anywhere in Middleborough (2,846) and 6.6 percent of the 5,844 crashes recorded at traffic circles anywhere in Massachusetts. Middleborough as a whole recorded 429 traffic circle crashes, second among Massachusetts communities to Bourne (522), which has more than one rotary.

The rotary’s crashes are many but mostly minor:

• Rear-end crashes are half of them, 198 of 388 (51.0 percent). Sideswipes in the same direction add 76 (19.6 percent) and angle crashes 67 (17.3 percent).
• Few injure anyone. 46 of the 388 involved a non-fatal injury, 11.9 percent, against 17.7 percent at the state’s other traffic circles and 22.9 percent for all crashes. None was fatal.
• Most happen in daylight at low posted speeds. Of the 122 records named for the rotary, 105 carry a posted limit of 25 miles per hour and 99 happened in daylight.

That pattern, frequent low-speed collisions with few injuries, is what traffic circles produce statewide. It also describes what a rotary claim usually looks like: a disputed question of who was already in the circle, modest property damage, and injuries that are real but often not visible at the scene.

West of Raynham: Seekonk to Taunton

The western section carries nearly half of Route 44’s crashes, 1,133 of 2,379, and four of its five fatal ones. Taunton alone recorded 710 (Winthrop Street 456, Dean Street 254), 10.7 percent of the city’s 6,644 crashes. Seekonk recorded 242 on Taunton Avenue, 11.2 percent of its 2,167. Rehoboth recorded 163 on Winthrop Street, 20.6 percent of the town’s 791, and Dighton 18.

This is an intersection road. Four-way intersections account for 22.6 percent of western crashes, against 12.2 percent on principal arterials, and 22.9 percent happened at a traffic signal. Rear-end (28.2 percent) and angle crashes (23.8 percent) lead. Local police wrote 1,132 of the 1,133 reports.

The injury share here, 18.8 percent, is low. If western Route 44 had the injury rates of other principal arterials crash type by crash type, about 270 of its crashes would have recorded an injury; 213 did. That does not show the road is gentler. Taunton’s crash records across the whole city show an injury share of 19.2 percent, so the gap may reflect how injuries are recorded locally rather than anything about Route 44, and this page does not treat it as a safety finding.

Pedestrians. Two of the five fatal crashes on Route 44 killed a pedestrian, both on Winthrop Street in the 9 p.m. hour: in Taunton in 2022, on a road with no lighting, and in Dighton in 2024, on a lighted road. Over the three years, 14 Route 44 crashes involved a pedestrian and 11 a bicyclist. The other western fatal crashes were a daylight angle collision on Taunton Avenue in Seekonk in 2022 in which two people died, and a rear-end crash on Winthrop Street in Taunton at about 1 a.m. in 2024.

Raynham: New State Highway

Raynham recorded 469 crashes on Route 44, 26.2 percent of the 1,787 crashes in the town over three years, more than a quarter of the town’s total on one road. None was fatal. The pattern is a commercial strip: angle crashes are 38.2 percent, more than double the 16.7 percent on principal arterials, rear-end crashes 37.1 percent, and 48 crashes (10.2 percent) happened at a driveway. 299 of the 469 carry a posted limit of 40 miles per hour.

The injury share, 26.4 percent, is above the class. The crash mix explains most of that. Angle crashes injure people more often than sideswipes on every kind of road, and applying the principal arterial injury rate for each crash type to Raynham’s mix predicts about 114 injury crashes; Raynham recorded 124.

East of Middleborough: Carver to Plymouth

The highway stretch through Carver, Plympton, Kingston and Plymouth recorded only 104 crashes, but they look nothing like the rest of the road. Three quarters carry a posted limit of 65. Single vehicle crashes are 61.5 percent (64). A deer was the first thing struck in 19 crashes and the median barrier in 17. 41 of the 104 happened in the dark on an unlighted road, and the State Police wrote 99 of the reports. The section’s one fatal crash was in Carver in 2022: a three-vehicle rear-end collision at about 6 p.m. on an unlighted road. Carver’s 62 Route 44 crashes are 9.7 percent of the town’s 636.

Answer Capsule

MassDOT crash records for 2022 through 2024 place 2,379 crashes on Route 44 from Seekonk to Plymouth, counted by road inventory name with ramps excluded: 718, 817 and 844 by year. Five were fatal, in which six people died, and 512 involved a non-fatal injury, an injury share of 21.5 percent against 23.3 percent for Massachusetts principal arterials, so the road as a whole is ordinary for its class. The concentration is the Middleborough Rotary, where Route 44 meets Routes 18 and 28: 388 crashes in three years, 6.6 percent of all traffic circle crashes in Massachusetts and 13.6 percent of Middleborough’s, with an injury share of 11.9 percent. Under M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 8, a driver entering a rotary must yield to any vehicle already in it. This is general information and not legal advice.

Route 44 Is Missing From the Town Road Lists

The road lists on the town crash reports are built from the roadway description officers type, and officers describe Route 44 in many ways. In 2024, Middleborough’s list shows three separate Route 44 entries of 19, 19 and 13 crashes, below West Grove Street at 25. Counted by inventory name, Route 44 (including Harding Street) and the rotary had 264 crashes in Middleborough that year, by far the most of any road in the town. Raynham’s list splits New State Highway into entries of 43, 41 and 32, against 166 by inventory name. Taunton’s list shows Winthrop Street at 76 and Dean Street at 41, against 159 and 89. See the crash reports for Middleborough, Raynham, Taunton, Seekonk and Plymouth.

The Law That Applies to a Crash on Route 44

At the rotary, the car already in the circle has the right of way. M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 8 provides that “any operator of a vehicle entering a rotary intersection shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle already in the intersection.” The same section says the rule gives way when a police officer, sign or signal directs traffic otherwise. In a rotary crash, which vehicle was already in the circle is usually the central question. See who is at fault at a Massachusetts intersection.

A rear-end crash usually starts with the following driver, but not always. The law asks every driver to keep a speed that is reasonable and proper. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 17 requires that no one drive at a speed “greater than is reasonable and proper, having regard to traffic and the use of the way and the safety of the public.” A driver who stops suddenly or cuts in at a rotary entry can share fault. See how fault is determined.

Your own policy pays first. Under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A, personal injury protection (PIP), the no-fault part of every Massachusetts auto policy, 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.” A PIP claim must be presented as soon as practicable and within two years under c. 90, sec. 34M. Pedestrians struck by a car are generally covered by PIP as well. See how PIP works in Massachusetts.

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. Many low-speed rotary injuries are decided by this rule.

Shared fault reduces a recovery but does not always bar it. 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 that share.

Where the case is filed depends on where the parties live. M.G.L. c. 223, sec. 1 provides that the action is brought “in the county where one of them lives or has his usual place of business.” A crash in Raynham does not by itself put the case in Bristol County, and a crash at the Middleborough Rotary does not by itself put it in Plymouth County. The Bristol County and Plymouth County venue guides list 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 Route 44

1. Move out of the rotary or the travel lane if the cars can be driven, and turn on hazard lights. Blocking the circle invites a second collision.
2. Call 911 if anyone is hurt. Local police write almost every report on Route 44 west of Carver, and the State Police on the highway east of Middleborough. Get the report number before the officer leaves.
3. Note which vehicle was already in the circle, which lane each car was in, and any yield sign at your entry. That is the question a rotary claim turns on.
4. Photograph the vehicles where they stopped, the damage, the signs and the lighting. At night on Winthrop Street, whether the road was lit matters for a pedestrian claim.
5. Get medical care the same day, even after a minor-seeming rear-end crash. PIP under c. 90, sec. 34A covers the first bills regardless of fault, and medical records are what show whether the c. 231, sec. 6D threshold is met.
6. Get the names of witnesses, especially other drivers in the rotary who saw how the cars entered.
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 Route 44 than on another road, or at the Middleborough Rotary than at another rotary.
• Whether this is the busiest rotary in the state. Other rotaries may also be split across two names, which was not tested here.
• Why the western injury share is low. It matches Taunton’s citywide recording, and the records cannot separate recording practice from what happened.
• Ramps and interchanges, including Route 24, Interstate 495 and Route 3, which are left out.
• Anything after 2024. These are the three most recent complete years in the open data, and changes to the rotary or the road since then are not reflected.

Key terms

• Road inventory name: the street name MassDOT attaches to a crash record when it maps the location; on Route 44 it changes from town to town.
• Rotary: a circular intersection where traffic moves one way around a center island; Massachusetts law requires entering drivers to yield to vehicles already in it.
• Principal arterial: MassDOT’s class for major through roads below the Interstates, used here as the comparison for Route 44.
• Injury share: the percentage of crashes in which at least one person had a non-fatal injury.
• Angle crash: a collision in which the front of one vehicle strikes the side of another, typical at driveways and intersections.
• 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 Bristol County crash data, the Plymouth County crash data, the Route 24 crash data, the Route 140 crash data, the Interstate 495 crash data, the Massachusetts intersection crash data and the Massachusetts pedestrian crash data. If you were hurt in or near Taunton or Plymouth, see car accident help in Taunton and car accident help in Plymouth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many crashes happen on Route 44 in Massachusetts?

A: MassDOT records show 2,379 crashes on Route 44 from Seekonk to Plymouth from 2022 through 2024: 718, 817 and 844 by year. Taunton recorded 710, Middleborough 673, Raynham 469, Seekonk 242 and Rehoboth 163. Ramp crashes and 122 records named for the Middleborough Rotary are not in that total.

Q: How many crashes happen at the Middleborough Rotary?

A: 388 from 2022 through 2024, counting records named for the rotary and Route 44 records coded as a traffic circle at the same location: 121, 131 and 136 by year. That is 6.6 percent of the 5,844 traffic circle crashes recorded in Massachusetts. 46 involved an injury and none was fatal.

Q: Is Route 44 dangerous?

A: As a whole its record is ordinary for its class. 21.5 percent of its crashes injured someone, against 23.3 percent on other principal arterials, and its five fatal crashes are fewer than the class rate would predict. The records count crashes, not traffic, so they cannot say whether it is riskier per mile than another road.

Q: Who has the right of way at a Massachusetts rotary?

A: The vehicle already in the rotary. M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 8 says any operator entering a rotary intersection shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle already in the intersection, unless a police officer, sign or signal directs otherwise.

Q: Why do so many crashes on New State Highway in Raynham injure someone?

A: Mostly because of the kind of crashes it has. Angle crashes, which happen at driveways and intersections, are 38.2 percent of Raynham’s Route 44 crashes against 16.7 percent on other principal arterials, and they injure people more often than other types. The class injury rates applied to Raynham’s crash mix predict about 114 injury crashes; 124 were recorded.

Q: Who pays my medical bills after a rear-end crash at the rotary?

A: Your own PIP coverage under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A pays medical expenses and part of lost wages up to at least $8,000 regardless of fault. A claim against the other driver for pain and suffering requires meeting the threshold in c. 231, sec. 6D, such as more than $2,000 in reasonable and necessary medical expenses or a fracture.

Q: How long do I have to bring a claim after a crash on Route 44?

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 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

Crashes on Route 44 range from a fender bender in the Middleborough Rotary to a pedestrian struck at night on Winthrop Street, and the questions are different for each: who was already in the circle, whether the injury meets the threshold, whether the road was lit. 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.