Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

162 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2021

All metrics benchmarked against2020

In 2021, Lyon County recorded 162 total crashes, compared to 136 in 2020, representing a 19.1% increase. The number of total injuries rose from 39 to 51, a 30.8% increase, while fatalities remained unchanged at one person killed in each period. The most notable year-over-year shift was the increase in serious injury crashes, which more than doubled from 3 in 2020 to 7 in 2021.

162

▲ 19.1%was 136

Total Crash Events

Persons Killed

▲ 30.8%was 39

Persons Injured

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 · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Traffic crashes in Lyon County increased year-over-year. The total number of crashes rose by 19.1%, from 136 in 2020 to 162 in 2021. This trend included a 30.8% rise in total injuries, from 39 to 51, while fatalities held steady at one person killed in each year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1→0.0%

Motorists Injured

Prior: 38↑34.2%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed some consistency year-over-year. The evening commute hour from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. remained the peak time for crashes in both 2021 (14 crashes) and 2020 (13 crashes). The peak day for crashes shifted slightly from Thursday in 2020 (25 crashes) to Wednesday in 2021 (25 crashes).

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the number of fatal crashes remained constant at one in both 2021 and 2020, the fatal crash rate per 100 crashes decreased from 0.74 to 0.62. However, the number of crashes resulting in serious injuries more than doubled, increasing from 3 in 2020 to 7 in 2021. The share of no-injury crashes decreased from 77.9% of all incidents in 2020 to 72.8% in 2021, indicating a slight shift toward more severe outcomes overall.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal1fatal crashes0.6%

→0.0%prior 1

Serious Injury7serious injury crashes4.3%

↑133.3%prior 3

Minor Injury20minor injury crashes12.3%

↑53.8%prior 13

Possible Injury16possible injury crashes9.9%

↑23.1%prior 13

No Injury118no injury crashes72.8%

↑11.3%prior 106

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Collisions with animals remained the top contributing factor in both periods, increasing in count from 48 in 2020 to 52 in 2021. Crashes attributed to 'Ran Stop Sign' rose from 9 to 12 incidents, and 'Followed too close' increased from 6 to 11 incidents. Conversely, crashes involving 'Driving too fast for conditions' saw a slight decrease in count from 12 to 11 incidents year-over-year.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal52 (32.1%)↑8.3%prior 48

Ran Stop Sign12 (7.4%)↑33.3%prior 9

Followed too close11 (6.8%)↑83.3%prior 6

Driving too fast for conditions11 (6.8%)↓-8.3%prior 12

Lost Control11 (6.8%)↑10.0%prior 10

Ran off road - straight9 (5.6%)↓-18.2%prior 11

Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction6 (3.7%)↑20.0%prior 5

FTYROW: From stop sign5 (3.1%)

Operating vehicle in an reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner5 (3.1%)

FTYROW: Making left turn3 (1.9%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The proportion of crashes occurring under adverse conditions shifted between the two periods. In 2021, a larger share of crashes happened on dry roads (74.8% of crashes with road condition data) compared to 2020 (63.6%). Correspondingly, the absolute number of crashes on snow and ice decreased from a combined 23 in 2020 to 12 in 2021. Similarly, crashes in clear weather accounted for a larger share of incidents in 2021 (80.5%) than in 2020 (67.3%).

Weather

Clear95 (80.5%)

↑43.9%prior 66

Cloudy10 (8.5%)

→0.0%prior 10

Snow6 (5.1%)

→0.0%prior 6

Rain5 (4.2%)

Fog, smoke, smog1 (0.8%)

Freezing rain/drizzle1 (0.8%)

↓-80.0%prior 5

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight75 (63.6%)

↑23.0%prior 61

Dark - roadway not lighted28 (23.7%)

→0.0%prior 28

Dark - roadway lighted8 (6.8%)

↑33.3%prior 6

Dawn4 (3.4%)

Dusk2 (1.7%)

Dark - unknown roadway lighting1 (0.8%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry89 (74.8%)

↑41.3%prior 63

Gravel9 (7.6%)

↑50.0%prior 6

Wet7 (5.9%)

↑16.7%prior 6

Snow7 (5.9%)

↓-46.2%prior 13

Ice/frost5 (4.2%)

↓-50.0%prior 10

Slush1 (0.8%)

Other (explain in narrative)1 (0.8%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained largely consistent, with Ford and Chevrolet variants being the most common in both 2021 and 2020. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes showed some shifts; involvement of persons aged 65 and older increased from 28 to 37. Conversely, the number of persons aged 16-20 involved in crashes decreased from 39 in 2020 to 28 in 2021.

Top Vehicle Makes (234 vehicles)

FORD43 (18.4%)

↑16.2%prior 37

CHEVROLET34 (14.5%)

↑78.9%prior 19

GMC19 (8.1%)

↑18.8%prior 16

CHEV19 (8.1%)

↓-9.5%prior 21

DODG9 (3.8%)

↑28.6%prior 7

BUIC8 (3.4%)

BUICK6 (2.6%)

CHRY6 (2.6%)

↑20.0%prior 5

DODGE6 (2.6%)

HONDA5 (2.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (178 persons with recorded sex)

Male110 (61.8%)

↑5.8%prior 104

Female68 (38.2%)

↑7.9%prior 63

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · 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: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31
Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31 (365 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 162
Total persons involved: 309
Total vehicles involved: 234

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: 2021." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2021-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

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162 CRASHES INIOWA, IA2021