Cape Ann's most dangerous roads: 2,500 crashes in Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester, and what each town is fixing

Washington Street in Gloucester had more crashes than any other road on Cape Ann over the past four years, and it is not a new pattern. It has had the most crashes in the city in 10 of the last 13 years, trading the top spot only with Route 128.

The Cape Ann Current analyzed state crash records for Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea from January 2023 through late September 2026, about 2,500 crashes in all, along with 10 years of earlier records for comparison. The records come from police crash reports filed with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The busiest roads

Washington Street had 266 crashes in the period. Route 128 through Gloucester came next with 196, not counting its ramps and Grant Circle, followed by Eastern Avenue with 122 and Main Street with 115. Over the 10 years from 2014 through 2023, Washington Street had about 800 crashes, the most in the city by a wide margin.

Route 128 draws the most crashes at any single spot. Grant Circle, the rotary where Route 128 meets Washington Street, had 22 crashes since 2023, the most of any intersection on Cape Ann. The Route 128 ramps at Crafts Road and Concord Street came next, followed by the highway's junctions at Washington Street and Eastern Avenue.

In Rockport, Main Street had the most crashes, 51, followed by Broadway and Granite Street. In Essex, John Wise Avenue and Eastern Avenue led with 32 each. In Manchester, most crashes were on Route 128.

How the roads rate

MassDOT rates the pavement on state numbered routes every year. Its 2025 ratings cover about 57 miles of numbered routes on Cape Ann: 30 in Gloucester, 12 in Manchester, 8.5 in Rockport and 7 in Essex. Gloucester, Rockport and Essex each had about one mile in five rated poor. Manchester had 3 percent poor, thanks mostly to Route 128, which the state repaved from Wenham to Gloucester in a $15.6 million job finished in 2024.

The worst rated busy roads were Washington Street in Gloucester (fair overall, 1.7 miles poor), Granite Street in Rockport (fair, 1.1 miles poor, repaved in April 2026) and Eastern Avenue in Essex (fair, almost half poor). The state does not rate local streets.

Gloucester and Rockport residents also report road problems through SeeClickFix. In Gloucester, 767 of the 2,500 most recent reports were about roads, and Washington Street drew more than any other street. In Rockport, 257 of 423 recent reports were about roads, and Beach Street drew the most, including 19 traffic complaints. Essex and Manchester do not use SeeClickFix.

Who owns a road decides who pays to fix it. The state's road inventory counts 277 miles of road in the four towns. MassDOT owns 29 miles. The towns have accepted 168 miles. The other 80 miles are unaccepted, mostly private roads, and 64 of those are in Gloucester. For state numbered routes that a town owns, like Washington Street in Gloucester or Granite Street in Rockport, MassDOT's Municipal Pavement Program will pay the full cost of repaving. Essex used it in 2023, and Gloucester and Rockport in 2026.

Why the condition of a road matters for crashes

Across the four towns, the roads with the most crashes are mostly state numbered routes, and the state rates about one mile in five of them poor in Gloucester, Rockport and Essex.

Worn, rough pavement is not just a comfort problem. Studies that match crash records to pavement ratings find more crashes on roads in worse shape. A 2025 University of Houston and University of Texas study of 21,536 crashes on Iowa highways found the crash rate on roads with a poor roughness rating was more than three times the rate on good roads, 466 crashes per 100 million vehicle miles against 134. On roads with poor skid resistance it was almost five times higher. A 2023 Federal Highway Administration study by Virginia Tech found that each 10 point gain in pavement friction cut crashes about 25 percent on urban arterials and 30 percent at urban intersections, with bigger gains in the rain. Tennessee researchers found in 2009 that the same pavement rating MassDOT uses, the PSI, predicted crash counts better than roughness or ruts alone. An Ohio study in 2016 found crash rates climbed sharply once roughness passed a threshold.

Speed matters as much. When Boston lowered its default limit to 25 mph, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found the odds of a car going over 35 mph fell 29 percent. Gloucester and Manchester have adopted that limit; Rockport and Essex have not.

The Boston Region MPO's Vision Zero Action Plan, finished in March 2026 with money from the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program, found that 7 percent of the region's road miles carry about 65 percent of its deadly and serious injury crashes, and that intersections are the site of 44 percent. Its first recommendations are slowing traffic and improving crossings, the kind of fix Rockport approved at Main and High streets. All four Cape Ann towns are in the plan, which is where MassDOT and the MPO will look when they rank the next projects.

None of these studies looked at Cape Ann roads. They explain why the state rates pavement every year and why a road that rates poor and has a long crash list, like Washington Street in Gloucester, is the kind of road these programs are built to fix.

Road projects, past and planned, on the map

Every road project we found in the four towns's records since 2023 is on this map, from paving that is done to projects still waiting for money, drawn over the crashes from the same years. Filter by status, tap a project for the details, or turn the crash layer off to see the projects alone.

What the towns have done since 2025

We checked every road at the top of these lists against the four towns' meeting minutes and budgets since January 2025. Two towns have funded a fix on one of their busiest crash roads. Rockport approved a flashing beacon and push button crossing at Main and High streets in November 2025, and the state repaved Granite Street and Railroad Avenue for the town in April 2026. Essex agreed in March 2026 to repave Southern Avenue end to end with state Chapter 90 money.

Gloucester's records since 2025 show no paving or safety project for Washington Street or Grant Circle. The state paid $1 million to repave Bass Avenue, and the council moved $401,286 in free cash to paving. In Manchester, town meeting voted in April 2026 to borrow up to $5 million as a backup for the Central Street culvert, and a $684,260 state grant will restripe upper School Street and add a sidewalk on Atwater Avenue. Summer Street, Manchester's busiest local crash road, has no work planned.

In Essex, a state project to resurface John Wise Avenue, part of Route 133, and improve its intersections has been in preliminary design since 2019, according to MassDOT's project database. It is based on a 2018 road safety audit and estimated at about $2 million. The studies behind this and other Cape Ann road projects, back to the first highways, are in our Roads Library.

Speed limits, and the two rotaries

The roads at the top of these lists are posted from 20 mph to 55 mph. Gloucester's Grant Circle and Blackburn Circle, the busiest crash intersections on Cape Ann, are two lane rotaries posted 25 mph on Route 128, which is 55 mph between them. Washington Street in Gloucester is mostly 25 mph; Rockport's Main Street runs from 20 mph downtown to 45 mph toward Gloucester; Essex's Eastern Avenue is 30 mph while John Wise Avenue is 45 to 50; Manchester's Summer Street climbs from 25 to 40.

State law sets the defaults where nothing is posted: 30 mph in a thickly settled or business district, 40 mph outside one, 50 mph on a divided highway, 20 mph in a school zone. Gloucester and Manchester have adopted a state option that lowers the unposted limit in thickly settled areas to 25 mph; Rockport and Essex have not. On a rotary, the car entering yields to the car already in the circle. Each town story lists the limits road by road.

What a road is supposed to meet

There is a yardstick for most of this. MassDOT sets targets for its own roads: at least 60 to 62 percent of non interstate miles rated good or excellent, and no more than 12 to 20 percent rated poor. Its 2021 asset report said the state numbered routes that cities and towns own, like Washington Street or Granite Street, have three times the poor mileage of the state owned ones, which is why the state created the Municipal Pavement Program. Gloucester, Rockport and Essex are each at about 20 percent poor on those routes; Manchester is at 3 percent.

A new asphalt surface lasts about 20 years, by the city of Gloucester's own account, and state Chapter 90 money reaches a public road about once every 40 years at current funding. Asphalt is laid in the warm months; Gloucester's permit rules close the road opening season on Nov. 15. Crosswalks, lane lines and signs follow the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which every state adopts, and the flashing beacon Rockport approved for Main and High streets is one of the Federal Highway Administration's proven safety countermeasures. New or rebuilt sidewalks must meet federal accessibility rules, with a clear path at least 4 feet wide and ramps at every crossing. At corners, engineers protect a sight triangle so drivers can see cross traffic; the towns' zoning and fence rules set how tall a fence or hedge may be near an intersection, and we are reviewing each town's bylaw for the next story in this series.

Chapter 90 is the state money behind most town paving. For fiscal 2027 it is $300 million statewide, two thirds split by road miles, population and jobs and one third by road miles alone. On top of it, the Fair Share surtax sent Gloucester $146,912, Rockport $40,777, Essex $29,250 and Manchester $32,547 in fiscal 2025 for the same uses.

Rockport's busy year

Rockport recorded 81 crashes in 2025, the most in any year in state records that go back to 2002. The town averaged about 51 a year from 2014 through 2023. The jump came mostly in summer, with 33 crashes from June through August. Most were minor. Eleven crashes injured someone, about the same as in a typical year.

When crashes happen

Crashes climb with the summer crowds. Across Cape Ann, July averaged 69 crashes over the period, against 41 in April. The busiest hour of the day is 2 to 3 p.m., and the midday hours from noon to 4 p.m. account for about a third of all crashes.

Why they happen

When officers recorded a cause, the most common by far was inattention or distraction, cited in 323 crashes. Careless or aggressive driving came next, followed by drifting out of the lane or off the road, and failing to yield.

About 400 crashes injured at least one person. Most crashes caused only property damage.

Hit and runs

In 196 crashes, about one in 12, a driver left the scene. Nearly all were in Gloucester. Washington Street, Prospect Street and Main Street had the most.

People walking and biking

Thirty-seven crashes involved a pedestrian and 33 involved a bicyclist. Most happened in Gloucester, and Washington Street and Main Street had the most of both.

How does your street compare? Look it up below, or see every crash on our Road Safety page.

Grants and fixes

Gloucester is the only one of the four towns we found on the state's Municipal Road Safety grant lists for 2024 through 2026. Its police department received between $26,064 and $40,000 a year, mostly for officers' overtime on traffic enforcement patrols, according to state award lists and city records. Towns the size of Rockport, Essex and Manchester can receive up to $25,000 a year. In the state's newest round of Municipal Road Safety awards, announced Oct. 16, Gloucester police will receive $24,476. Rockport, Essex and Manchester are not on that list either.

Gloucester and Manchester have adopted the state's 25 mph default speed limit for town streets. Rockport and Essex have not, according to MassDOT. Since December 2025, MassDOT has offered towns free speed feedback signs, first come, first served.

None of the four towns has its own grant from the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. All four are among the 97 communities in the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization's Vision Zero Action Plan, endorsed in March 2026.

What this series will examine, town by town

This is the first of six reports, running over four weeks. A new one comes out each week, with two in the second week, each with its own maps, a road by road report card, the money each town has voted for roads, and what is planned. Here is the schedule and what each will look at:

• Wednesday, Oct. 28: Gloucester. 266 crashes on Washington Street and no fix funded, the Route 128 ramps and the two rotaries, a $30 million paving backlog, what residents report on SeeClickFix, and the paving line in every city budget since 2020.

• Thursday, Oct. 29: Is your Gloucester street public or private?. 573 private roads the city cannot repave, what Eastern Point's residents do differently, the ways a private road gets fixed and the case for and against each, and a lookup tool for every Gloucester street.

• Tuesday, Nov. 3: Rockport. A record 81 crashes in 2025 on Main Street, Broadway and Granite Street, the summer surge, Five Corners after 15 years of study, the $2 million roadway article voters passed, and the state's repaving of Granite Street and Railroad Avenue.

• Wednesday, Nov. 11: Essex. Crashes cluster on Route 133: Eastern Avenue has the injuries and nearly half its pavement rates poor, the causeway floods five or six times a year, and Southern Avenue is next for Chapter 90 paving.

• Wednesday, Nov. 11: Manchester-by-the-Sea. Most crashes are on Route 128 and Summer Street, the town's roads rate the best on Cape Ann, state records show a gap in 2026 police reports, and voters passed $5 million for the Central Street culvert.

Every report draws on the same records: police crash reports compiled by MassDOT, the state's 2025 pavement ratings, MassDOT's road inventory, and the town meeting, select board, council and public works minutes in the Current's Public Meeting Archive. Each town's police, fire and public works chiefs and MassDOT were sent the findings on Oct. 7 and asked to respond; their answers appear in each town's report. All of the data is free to download on Data and Tools.

Words used in this story

About the numbers

The records are police crash reports compiled by MassDOT. Location details in this story come from the 2,329 crashes the state has placed on a map; about 200 more have no location and are counted only in the total. Every figure matches the Cape Ann Current's Road Safety page, where you can look up any street. MassDOT says records for 2024 and later are still open and subject to change, so those years are preliminary and may rise as reports come in. Comparisons to earlier years start in 2014, because the state's records for Gloucester and Rockport drop sharply from about 2009 to 2013, a pattern that suggests missing reports rather than safer roads. Under federal law, the state's crash data cannot be used as evidence in court cases over a crash.