ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2018
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
Authentication: None required. Public endpoint.
GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/iowa/statewide/2018-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
399 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2018
In 2018, Cedar County recorded 399 total crashes, a 3.6% increase from the 385 crashes reported in 2017. While the overall crash volume saw a slight rise, the number of fatalities doubled, increasing from 2 in 2017 to 4 in 2018. Total injuries, however, saw a minor decrease from 109 to 102 over the same period.
399
▲ 3.6%was 385
Total Crash Events
4
▲ 100.0%was 2
Persons Killed
102
▼ -6.4%was 109
Persons Injured
4
▲ 100.0%was 2
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (4) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (4) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend in Cedar County shows a slight increase in traffic collisions year-over-year. Total crashes rose from 385 in 2017 to 399 in 2018, an increase of 3.6%. While total injuries decreased by 6.4%, the number of fatalities doubled from 2 to 4 during this period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
3
Pedestrians Injured
3
Cyclists Injured
95
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes showed some shifts between the two periods. The peak day for collisions moved from Friday (79 crashes) in 2017 to Monday (80 crashes) in 2018. Similarly, the peak hour for crashes shifted slightly earlier, from 3 p.m. in 2017 (32 crashes) to 2 p.m. in 2018 (27 crashes). While both years saw a high number of crashes towards the end of the year, the peak month changed from December in 2017 (61 crashes) to November in 2018 (55 crashes).
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes worsened in terms of fatalities, even as the overall injury rate declined. The number of fatal crashes doubled from 2 in 2017 to 4 in 2018, increasing the fatal crash share from 0.5% to 1.0% of all collisions. Conversely, the total proportion of crashes resulting in any injury (serious, minor, or possible) decreased from 22.9% in 2017 to 19.5% in 2018. The share of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 76.6% to 79.4%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions with animals remained the leading contributing factor in both 2017 and 2018, despite a small decrease in count from 115 to 108 incidents. The second-most common factor in 2018 was 'Ran off road - straight,' which increased in count from 38 to 47 crashes. 'Lost Control' also saw a significant increase in count, rising from 33 to 44 crashes and becoming the third-ranked factor in 2018. 'Followed too close' incidents decreased from 29 to 19.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
While most crashes in both years occurred in clear weather on dry roads, there was a notable increase in crashes under adverse winter conditions. Crashes in snow increased from 39 to 50, and collisions on snowy road surfaces rose from 40 to 51. More significantly, crashes attributed to freezing rain or drizzle jumped from 4 to 20, and crashes on icy or frosty roads more than tripled, increasing from 9 in 2017 to 31 in 2018.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford and Chevrolet brands being the most common in both 2017 and 2018. The distribution of persons involved in crashes across most age groups was also stable year-over-year. However, there was a noticeable increase in the number of individuals aged 55 and older involved in collisions; the 55-64 age group grew from 61 to 85 people, and the 65+ age group increased from 61 to 76 people.
Top Vehicle Makes (544 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
41 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (439 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Data Sources & Methodology
Primary Data Source
All crash data in this report is sourced from Iowa Crash Data, accessed programmatically via the ArcGIS Open Data API (SODA). This dataset contains official police-reported motor vehicle traffic crash records maintained by the reporting jurisdiction's law enforcement agency. Records are published to the open data portal by the municipality and are subject to the portal's terms of use.
Data Retrieval
- Access method: ArcGIS Open Data API (SoQL queries)
- Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
- Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
- Date filter applied: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 399
- Total persons involved: 685
- Total vehicles involved: 544
Analytical Methodology
- Severity classification: Uses the KABCO injury scale (K=Fatal, A=Incapacitating injury, B=Non-incapacitating injury, C=Possible injury, O=No injury/property damage only), the standard classification in U.S. Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). Severity is assigned per crash event based on the most severe injury in that crash. A single fatal crash (K) may involve multiple fatalities; therefore the "Persons Killed" count in the headline KPIs may differ from the "Fatal" crash count in the severity breakdown.
- Contributing factors: Reflect the officer-determined primary contributory cause recorded at the time of the crash report. These are preliminary determinations and may not reflect final investigation findings.
- Hit-and-run classification: Based on the hit-and-run indicator field in the official crash report, as determined by the responding officer at the scene.
- Temporal analysis: Day-of-week and hour-of-day distributions are computed from the crash date/time timestamp in each record.
- Demographics: Age and sex distributions are drawn from person-level records linked to each crash event. A single crash may involve multiple persons.
- Vehicle data: Make information is drawn from vehicle unit records linked to each crash event.
- AI commentary: Narrative sections are generated by Google Gemini (large language model) based on the structured data. Commentary is descriptive, not predictive, and should not be interpreted as expert opinion.
Limitations & Disclaimers
- Only crashes reported to and documented by law enforcement are included. Minor incidents, unreported crashes, and near-misses are not captured in this dataset.
- Data reflects conditions at the time of the initial police report and may be subject to subsequent corrections, reclassifications, or supplements by the reporting agency.
- Open data portal records may experience a publication lag - recently occurring crashes may not yet appear in the dataset at the time of report generation.
- AI-generated commentary is produced by a large language model and is intended to highlight patterns in the data. It does not constitute legal, medical, or professional analysis.
- Percentages are calculated from reported data and are subject to rounding.
Non-Affiliation Disclosure
This report is produced independently by ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with any law enforcement agency, municipal government, state department of transportation, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data is sourced from publicly available government open data portals.
Data License
The underlying crash data is provided under the municipality's Open Data Terms of Use and is made available to the public for unrestricted use. This analysis and report is © 2026 Injuria.ai and may be cited with attribution using the suggested citation below.
Corrections & Feedback
If you believe any data in this report is inaccurate or have questions about our methodology, please contact: data@injuria.ai. We are committed to accuracy and will issue corrections promptly.
Suggested Citation
ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). "iowa, IA Crash Intelligence Report: 2018." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2018-annual-report
About the Publisher
ThatCarHitMe.com is a crash data intelligence platform developed by Injuria.ai, a legal technology company specializing in traffic safety analytics. We aggregate and analyze publicly available government crash data to produce structured intelligence reports for communities, researchers, journalists, and legal professionals. Our reports combine programmatic data retrieval from official open data portals with AI-assisted narrative analysis.
Questions about this report's data or methodology: data@injuria.ai
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS
Period: 2018-01-01 – 2018-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved