ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2020
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/2020-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
125 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2020
In 2020, Lucas County recorded 125 total crashes, representing a 5.3% decrease from the 132 crashes documented in 2019. Despite the overall reduction in collisions, the number of fatalities increased significantly, rising from one in 2019 to four in 2020.
125
▼ -5.3%was 132
Total Crash Events
4
▲ 300.0%was 1
Persons Killed
40
▲ 21.2%was 33
Persons Injured
3
▲ 200.0%was 1
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (4) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend shows a slight decrease in the total number of crashes in Lucas County, falling by 5.3% from 132 incidents in 2019 to 125 in 2020. However, this decrease in crash volume was accompanied by a rise in severity, as total injuries increased from 33 to 40 and fatalities quadrupled from one to four.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
2
Motorists Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
38
Motorists Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes in 2020 was Thursday with 29 incidents, which was also a peak day in 2019 with 23 crashes. The peak hour for collisions shifted later into the evening year-over-year. In 2019, the peak was 6 p.m. with 13 crashes, while in 2020, the peak was shared by the 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. hours, each with 10 crashes.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Crash severity increased from 2019 to 2020. The number of fatal crashes rose from one to three, and the corresponding fatal crash rate increased from 0.8% to 2.4% of all crashes. The proportion of crashes involving any injury also grew from 20.5% in 2019 to 28.0% in 2020, driven by an increase in minor and possible injury crashes and the appearance of seven serious injury crashes where none were recorded in the prior year.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 3 fatal crash events resulted in 4 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions with animals were the leading contributing factor in both periods, although the count of such incidents fell by 17.7%, from 62 crashes in 2019 to 51 in 2020. The number of crashes attributed to 'Lost Control' remained stable at eight for both years. Crashes where 'FTYROW: From stop sign' was a factor increased from three in 2019 to five in 2020.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The majority of crashes in both years occurred under similar circumstances, primarily in clear weather and on dry roads. In 2020, there were 61 crashes on dry roads and 10 on wet roads, compared to 58 and 6, respectively, in 2019. Crashes in daylight decreased from 51 to 48, while incidents on dark, unlighted roadways increased from 16 in 2019 to 20 in 2020.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Ford and Chevrolet were the most common vehicle makes in crashes for both years, with counts remaining relatively stable. In 2020, 38 Fords and 39 Chevrolets were involved, compared to 39 and 34, respectively, in 2019. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes shifted, with the 35-44 age group becoming the most represented in 2020 (43 people), a change from the 45-54 age group in 2019 (51 people).
Top Vehicle Makes (167 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
20 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (155 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · 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: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31 (366 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 125
- Total persons involved: 265
- Total vehicles involved: 167
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: 2020." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2020-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: 2020-01-01 – 2020-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved