ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2024
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/2024-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
206 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2024
In Clarke County, total traffic crashes increased by 9.6% from 188 in 2023 to 206 in 2024. Despite the rise in overall collisions, the number of fatalities decreased from three in the prior year to one in the current year. The most significant shift in crash causation was a drop in incidents involving reckless driving, which fell from 9 to 4, while crashes attributed to animal-related factors remained the leading cause in both periods.
206
▲ 9.6%was 188
Total Crash Events
1
▼ -66.7%was 3
Persons Killed
62
▼ -1.6%was 63
Persons Injured
1
▼ -50.0%was 2
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Traffic crashes in Clarke County showed an upward trend, increasing from 188 incidents in 2023 to 206 in 2024. This represents an increase of 18 crashes, or 9.6%, year-over-year. In contrast to the rising crash volume, total fatalities fell from 3 to 1, and the number of injuries remained stable, with 62 in the current period compared to 63 in the prior period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Cyclists Killed
1
Motorists Killed
1
Cyclists Injured
61
Motorists Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes remained largely consistent between the two periods. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both 2024 (38 crashes) and 2023 (35 crashes). Similarly, the 5 p.m. hour was the peak time for collisions in both the current period, with 21 crashes, and the prior period, with 18 crashes. There were no major shifts in the overall daily or hourly distributions year-over-year.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes lessened overall compared to the prior year. The number of fatal crashes decreased from 2 in 2023 to 1 in 2024, and the fatal crash rate dropped from 1.1% to 0.5% of all crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in any type of injury also declined, from 25.5% of all crashes in the prior period to 21.4% in the current period. Consequently, the share of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 73.4% to 78.2%.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions with animals remained the top contributing factor in both periods, with the count increasing from 39 to 43. The top four primary factors were identical year-over-year, including "Lost Control" (decreasing from 20 to 18) and "Followed too close" (decreasing from 18 to 15). A notable change was the decline in crashes attributed to "Operating vehicle in an reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner," which fell from 9 incidents to 4. Conversely, crashes involving "Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction" increased from 2 to 7.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The conditions under which crashes occurred were similar year-over-year, with most incidents happening in ideal conditions. In the current period, 60.2% of crashes occurred in clear weather and 57.3% in daylight, compared to 56.9% and 52.1% in the prior period, respectively. The proportion of crashes on dry road surfaces was also stable, accounting for 62.6% of incidents in 2024 versus 62.2% in 2023, indicating no significant shift toward adverse-condition crashes.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Ford and Chevrolet vehicles were the most frequently involved makes in crashes for both years, with the count for both increasing. The number of Fords involved rose from 42 to 53, and the combined total for Chevrolet vehicles rose from 55 to 58. Regarding driver demographics, there was a notable shift in the age of persons involved in crashes; involvement decreased for the 26-34 age group (from 69 to 47 persons) and the 35-44 age group (from 65 to 44 persons), while the 65+ age group saw an increase from 41 to 51 persons.
Top Vehicle Makes (309 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
23 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (199 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31 (366 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 206
- Total persons involved: 325
- Total vehicles involved: 309
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: 2024." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2024-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: 2024-01-01 – 2024-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved