Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,981 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2024

All metrics benchmarked against2023

In Dubuque County, total traffic crashes increased by 3.0%, from 1,923 in 2023 to 1,981 in 2024. While total injuries saw a slight decrease, the most notable year-over-year change was a significant increase in fatalities, which rose from 4 in the prior period to 11 in the current period.

1,981

▲ 3.0%was 1,923

Total Crash Events

11

▲ 175.0%was 4

Persons Killed

558

▼ -2.1%was 570

Persons Injured

10

▲ 150.0%was 4

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (11) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (10) 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

Overall, the trend shows a slight increase in the total number of crashes, rising from 1,923 to 1,981 year-over-year. Despite this, the number of people injured decreased by 2.1% from 570 to 558. Conversely, traffic fatalities increased substantially, climbing from 4 in 2023 to 11 in 2024.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1→0.0%

1

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→%

9

Motorists Killed

Prior: 3↑200.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

21

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 13↑61.5%

14

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 13↑7.7%

520

Motorists Injured

Prior: 542↓-4.1%

3

Other Injured

Prior: 2↑50.0%

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 timing of crashes showed some shifts between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Thursday (318 crashes) in 2023 to Friday (334 crashes) in 2024. However, the peak hour for collisions remained consistent, occurring at 3 p.m. in both years, with 174 crashes in 2023 and 175 in 2024.

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

Crash severity worsened year-over-year, with the number of fatal crashes increasing from 4 to 10. This raised the fatal crash rate from 0.21% to 0.50% of all collisions. The count of serious injury crashes also grew from 24 to 27, and minor injury crashes increased from 155 to 177. Crashes resulting in possible injury were the only injury category to see a decrease, falling from 291 to 274.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 10 fatal crash events resulted in 11 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal10fatal crashes0.5%
↑150.0%prior 4
Serious Injury27serious injury crashes1.4%
↑12.5%prior 24
Minor Injury177minor injury crashes8.9%
↑14.2%prior 155
Possible Injury274possible injury crashes13.8%
↓-5.8%prior 291
No Injury1,493no injury crashes75.4%
↑3.0%prior 1,449

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

The top two contributing factors remained consistent, with "Ran off road - left" (380 incidents) and "Animal" (258 incidents) leading in 2024, despite small decreases in count from the prior year. There were notable shifts in other factors; crashes attributed to "Failure to yield from a stop sign" increased in count by 63.9% from 61 to 100, and "Followed too close" incidents rose from 74 to 99. Conversely, crashes involving "Ran Stop Sign" decreased in count from 122 to 92.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Ran off road - left380 (19.2%)↓-3.1%prior 392
Animal258 (13%)↓-2.6%prior 265
Ran Traffic Signal103 (5.2%)↓-6.4%prior 110
Lost Control102 (5.1%)↑2.0%prior 100
FTYROW: From stop sign100 (5%)↑63.9%prior 61
Followed too close99 (5%)↑33.8%prior 74
Ran Stop Sign92 (4.6%)↓-24.6%prior 122
Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction72 (3.6%)↑18.0%prior 61
Other (explain in narrative): No improper action69 (3.5%)→0.0%prior 69
Made improper turn66 (3.3%)↑22.2%prior 54

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Comparatively, the proportion of crashes occurring in clear weather increased, while those in cloudy and snowy conditions decreased. Crashes during rain saw a notable increase from 71 to 114 incidents. Similarly, collisions on wet road surfaces rose from 174 to 217, and crashes on icy or frosty roads increased from 41 to 65. Lighting conditions at the time of crashes remained proportionally stable between the two periods.

Weather

Clear1,189 (68.3%)
↑9.2%prior 1,089
Cloudy306 (17.6%)
↓-11.6%prior 346
Rain114 (6.5%)
↑60.6%prior 71
Snow78 (4.5%)
↓-33.3%prior 117
Freezing rain/drizzle22 (1.3%)
↑29.4%prior 17
Fog, smoke, smog18 (1.0%)
↓-5.3%prior 19
Blowing Snow11 (0.6%)
↓-21.4%prior 14
Severe Winds2 (0.1%)
Sleet, hail1 (0.1%)
Other (explain in narrative)1 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight1,264 (72.1%)
↑5.3%prior 1,200
Dark - roadway lighted279 (15.9%)
↑0.7%prior 277
Dark - roadway not lighted132 (7.5%)
↓-5.7%prior 140
Dusk43 (2.5%)
↑7.5%prior 40
Dawn19 (1.1%)
→0.0%prior 19
Dark - unknown roadway lighting15 (0.9%)
↑36.4%prior 11

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry1,348 (77.3%)
↑1.3%prior 1,331
Wet217 (12.4%)
↑24.7%prior 174
Snow99 (5.7%)
↓-13.2%prior 114
Ice/frost65 (3.7%)
↑58.5%prior 41
Slush9 (0.5%)
↑12.5%prior 8
Gravel4 (0.2%)
↓-42.9%prior 7
Other (explain in narrative)1 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes rose slightly from 3,331 to 3,434, in line with the overall increase in collisions. The top vehicle makes involved in crashes remained largely consistent year-over-year. Combined Chevrolet models (CHEV, CHEVROLET) were the most frequent in both periods (651 in 2023 and 657 in 2024), followed by Ford, which also saw a stable count (453 vs. 456).

Top Vehicle Makes (3,434 vehicles)

1
FORD456 (13.3%)
↑0.7%prior 453
2
CHEV439 (12.8%)
↓-3.9%prior 457
3
CHEVROLET218 (6.3%)
↑12.4%prior 194
4
JEEP200 (5.8%)
↑14.3%prior 175
5
TOYT181 (5.3%)
↓-10.0%prior 201
6
HOND178 (5.2%)
↑8.5%prior 164
7
KIA153 (4.5%)
↑48.5%prior 103
8
GMC139 (4%)
↑13.9%prior 122
9
NISS108 (3.1%)
↓-6.1%prior 115
10
DODG105 (3.1%)
↑1.9%prior 103

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

527 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (2,223 persons with recorded sex)

Male1,220 (54.9%)
↓-26.9%prior 1,668
Female1,003 (45.1%)
↓-24.5%prior 1,329

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: 1,981
  • Total persons involved: 3,584
  • Total vehicles involved: 3,434

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