SOUTH COAST Crashes killed 42 people on the roads of the 19 South Coast cities and towns in 2025, the most in any year since 2020, when 47 died, and six more than in 2024, according to the state's crash records. Across Massachusetts the toll went the other way, falling from 364 deaths in 2024 to 354.
Dartmouth accounted for 11 of the region's deaths, more than any other South Coast community and the most for the town in any year since at least 2015, the first year in the state's file. Seven of them came in five crashes on Interstate 195. In the four years before, Dartmouth had two to four deaths a year.
The 19 communities had about 12% of the state's road deaths in 2025, up from about 10% in 2024. The count of crashes in which someone suffered a suspected serious injury barely moved, 231 in 2025 against 234 the year before.
These are MassDOT's current figures, not final ones. The state marks its crash records for 2021 to 2023 as closed and every record from 2024, 2025 and 2026 as open, and the counts for the open years can still change.
Where the deaths happened
Interstate 195 was the deadliest single road. The state's crash file places 10 of the region's 38 fatal crashes in 2025 on the highway, with 12 deaths: five crashes in Dartmouth, two each in Seekonk and Somerset and one in Rehoboth. From 2021 through 2024, I-195 had between two and six deaths a year in these communities.
In Dartmouth, two of the highway crashes, in July and September near the Reed Road ramps, killed two people each. Another, in November, was near the ramp to Faunce Corner Road. The town's other four deaths came on Old Westport Road, where one crash in May killed two people, and on Russells Mills Road and Reed Road.
New Bedford had seven deaths and Taunton five, its second year in a row at that number. Wareham and Freetown had three each; Fairhaven, Fall River, Seekonk and Somerset two each; and Acushnet, Berkley, Lakeville, Rehoboth and Westport one each. Fall River's two deaths were its fewest since 2019, when it had one. Dighton, Marion, Mattapoisett, Rochester and Swansea recorded none.
Who died
Most of the dead were in vehicles. The Registry of Motor Vehicles fatality file lists 24 drivers, six passengers and nine motorcycle operators killed on South Coast roads in 2025, along with three pedestrians. Nine motorcycle operators ties 2016 for the most in any year of the file, and no bicyclist was killed in the region in 2025.
Twenty-two of the 38 fatal crashes, with 24 deaths, happened after dark, and the crash file lists 17 as single-vehicle crashes. State Police handled 19 of the crashes and local police departments handled the other 19.
This year so far
The fatality file lists 28 deaths in the 19 communities from Jan. 1 through Thursday, Oct. 29, the newest date in it, compared with 32 over the same stretch of 2025. Statewide, 268 people have died on the roads this year, against 288 at the same point last year.
Nine of this year's dead in the region were pedestrians and three were bicyclists, 12 of the 28, a change from 2025, when three pedestrians and no bicyclists died in the 19 communities all year. Five of the pedestrians were killed in New Bedford, four of them in January and February. Nine pedestrian deaths is already the most for the region in any year since 2020, when 10 died. Dartmouth has had five road deaths so far this year.
Town by town
| Community | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 through Oct. 29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acushnet | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Berkley | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Dartmouth | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 5 |
| Dighton | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Fairhaven | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Fall River | 6 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Freetown | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Lakeville | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Marion | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mattapoisett | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| New Bedford | 9 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
| Rehoboth | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Rochester | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Seekonk | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Somerset | 1 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Swansea | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Taunton | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Wareham | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Westport | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 36 | 35 | 39 | 36 | 42 | 28 |
How we counted
The death counts come from the Registry of Motor Vehicles fatality file that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation posts on its public crash data service, one row for each person killed, by the city or town where the crash happened, from 2015 through Oct. 29 of this year. Details about the 2025 crashes, including the road, the light, the number of vehicles and the police agency, come from MassDOT's crash file for 2025, one row for each crash. For 2021 through 2025 the two files give the same yearly totals for the 19 communities. The 2026 crash file lists 25 deaths so far, three fewer than the fatality file, so the 2026 figures here come from the fatality file. Statewide, the 2025 crash file counts 352 deaths, two fewer than the fatality file's 354.
The closed and open status of each year is as the crash files' own record status field marks it. The crash file leaves out deaths it lists as not caused by the crash. A death on a state highway counts in the community where the crash happened, whoever lived there. The 19 communities are the same ones in South Coast 360's earlier data stories on crime, free cash and levy limits. Totals, shares and comparisons are our arithmetic from the state's own figures, which we read on Oct. 30.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every figure comes from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's public crash data service: the Registry of Motor Vehicles fatality file, which lists each person killed in a crash from 2015 through Oct. 29, 2026, and MassDOT's yearly crash files for 2021 through 2026, which list each crash. We read them on Oct. 30. The yearly totals, the community counts, the shares of the statewide toll, the counts by road and the same period comparisons are our arithmetic from those files, and the two files agree for the 19 communities in every year from 2021 to 2025. The 19 communities are Acushnet, Berkley, Dartmouth, Dighton, Fairhaven, Fall River, Freetown, Lakeville, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Rehoboth, Rochester, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton, Wareham and Westport. No person is named. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (3)
- MassDOT crash data service: IMPACT RMV Fatalities, layer MV RMV FATAL CRASHES YTDOne row per person killed in a crash, with crash date, town and person type (driver, passenger, motorcycle operator, pedestrian, bicyclist), 2015 through Oct. 29, 2026; counts by year, community and type for the 19 South Coast communities and statewide. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- MassDOT crash open data: 2025 crash fileOne row per crash: town, severity, deaths, injuries, road, light condition, manner of collision, police agency type and record status, for every 2025 crash in the 19 communities and statewide totals. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- MassDOT crash open data: crash files for 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026Yearly crash files (MASSDOT_ODP_OPEN_2021, 2022, 2023v, 2024 and 2026) used for crash counts, serious injury crashes, I-195 deaths by year and record status (closed or open). Read Oct. 30, 2026.