ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2019
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/2019-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
3,697 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2019
In 2019, Linn County recorded 3,697 vehicle crashes, a 1.8% decrease from the 3,763 crashes documented in 2018. While overall crashes and injuries saw a slight decline, the number of fatal crashes increased from 12 to 14. The most notable shift was a 20% reduction in crashes resulting in serious injuries, which fell from 70 in 2018 to 56 in 2019.
3,697
▼ -1.8%was 3,763
Total Crash Events
15
▲ 7.1%was 14
Persons Killed
1,224
▼ -1.4%was 1,241
Persons Injured
14
▲ 16.7%was 12
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (15) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (14) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crash volume in Linn County showed a slight year-over-year decline. Total crashes decreased by 1.8%, from 3,763 in 2018 to 3,697 in 2019. Similarly, total injuries fell by 1.4%, while fatalities increased by one person, from 14 to 15.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
14
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
21
Pedestrians Injured
30
Cyclists Injured
1,169
Motorists Injured
4
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes in Linn County shifted slightly between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Tuesday (643 crashes) in 2018 to Thursday (618 crashes) in 2019. The busiest time of day also shifted earlier, with the peak moving from the 5 p.m. hour, with 348 crashes in the prior year, to the 4 p.m. hour, with 328 crashes in the current year.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes saw mixed changes year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes increased from 12 to 14, raising the fatal crash rate from 0.32% to 0.38% of all incidents. Conversely, crashes resulting in serious injuries decreased, falling from 70 incidents (1.9% of total) in 2018 to 56 incidents (1.5% of total) in 2019. The proportion of crashes with minor injuries increased from 8.4% to 9.4% of all crashes.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 14 fatal crash events resulted in 15 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with "Followed too close" being the top cause in both 2018 (450 crashes) and 2019 (442 crashes). The second and third-ranked factors, "Ran off road - left" and "Animal," also held their positions despite seeing decreases in their crash counts of 1.2% and 7.8% respectively. Notably, crashes attributed to "Improper or erratic lane changing" increased in count by 28.8%, from 52 to 67, while crashes involving failure to yield from a stop sign decreased by 17.3% in count, from 271 to 224.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
While the majority of crashes in both periods occurred in clear weather and daylight, there was a notable increase in crashes under adverse winter conditions in 2019. Crashes on snowy roads increased from 161 in 2018 to 261 in 2019, and incidents on icy or frosty surfaces rose from 173 to 190. Correspondingly, the share of crashes on dry roads decreased from 66.6% in 2018 to 63.4% in 2019.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained largely consistent, with Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota being the most common in both years. The number of Chevrolets involved in crashes increased by 3.0% from 1,213 to 1,249, while Fords increased by 4.3% from 1,128 to 1,176. An analysis of persons involved shows an increased representation of several age groups, including the 16-20 age group (from 1,136 to 1,221 people) and the 65+ age group (from 883 to 936 people).
Top Vehicle Makes (6,880 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
662 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (6,511 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31 · 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: 2019-01-01 through 2019-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2019-01-01 through 2019-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 3,697
- Total persons involved: 8,774
- Total vehicles involved: 6,880
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: 2019." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2019-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: 2019-01-01 – 2019-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved