Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

56,069 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2016

All metrics benchmarked against2015

In 2016, Iowa recorded 56,069 total crashes, a 2.2% increase from the 54,847 crashes in 2015. While total crashes and injuries saw modest increases, the most notable year-over-year shift was a significant 25.2% rise in total fatalities, which increased from 321 in 2015 to 402 in 2016.

56,069

▲ 2.2%was 54,847

Total Crash Events

402

▲ 25.2%was 321

Persons Killed

19,249

▲ 0.7%was 19,109

Persons Injured

355

▲ 25.4%was 283

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (402) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (355) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic crashes in Iowa trended upward from 2015 to 2016. The total number of crashes increased by 2.2%, from 54,847 to 56,069. This was accompanied by a substantial 25.2% increase in fatalities (from 321 to 402), while total injuries remained relatively stable with a 0.7% increase (from 19,109 to 19,249).

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 25↓-12.0%

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 5↑60.0%

370

Motorists Killed

Prior: 288↑28.5%

Other Killed

Prior: 3↓-33.3%

465

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 435↑6.9%

366

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 376↓-2.7%

18,367

Motorists Injured

Prior: 18,250↑0.6%

Other Injured

Prior: 48↑6.3%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · 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 consistent year-over-year. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both 2016 (9,726 crashes) and 2015 (9,296 crashes), and the 5 p.m. hour was the peak hour in both periods, with 4,717 crashes in 2016 and 4,698 in 2015. The general pattern of higher crash volumes during weekday commute hours and lower volumes on weekends persisted across both years.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crash severity worsened from 2015 to 2016. The number of fatal crashes rose from 283 to 355, and the fatal crash rate increased from 0.52% to 0.63% of all crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries remained stable at 2.2% in both periods, while minor injury crashes saw a slight proportional increase from 8.8% to 9.0%. Conversely, the share of no-injury crashes decreased slightly from 71.6% to 71.4%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 355 fatal crash events resulted in 402 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal355fatal crashes0.6%

↑25.4%prior 283

Serious Injury1,239serious injury crashes2.2%

↑0.8%prior 1,229

Minor Injury5,048minor injury crashes9%

↑4.4%prior 4,837

Possible Injury9,398possible injury crashes16.8%

↑1.9%prior 9,225

No Injury40,029no injury crashes71.4%

↑1.9%prior 39,273

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factors for crashes were largely consistent between 2015 and 2016. Collisions with an animal remained the top factor in both years, though the count decreased slightly from 7,390 to 7,225. "Followed too close" remained the second-leading factor but saw its count increase by 10.0%, from 5,619 to 6,179. "Ran off road - left" also saw a notable count increase of 8.7% from 3,179 to 3,455, moving it from the fourth to the third-ranked factor.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal7,225 (12.9%)↓-2.2%prior 7,390

Followed too close6,179 (11%)↑10.0%prior 5,619

Ran off road - left3,455 (6.2%)↑8.7%prior 3,179

Lost Control3,408 (6.1%)↑1.0%prior 3,374

Driving too fast for conditions3,047 (5.4%)↑1.0%prior 3,016

FTYROW: From stop sign3,000 (5.4%)↓-0.4%prior 3,012

Other (explain in narrative): Other2,949 (5.3%)↓-2.7%prior 3,032

FTYROW: Making left turn2,497 (4.5%)↓-3.0%prior 2,575

Ran off road - straight2,134 (3.8%)↑2.9%prior 2,074

Ran Traffic Signal1,914 (3.4%)↑3.9%prior 1,843

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The distribution of environmental conditions shifted between the two periods. In 2016, a greater number of crashes occurred on dry roads (37,092 vs. 34,484) and in clear weather (31,171 vs. 30,130) compared to 2015. Conversely, crashes during rain (2,518 vs. 3,851) and on snowy roads (2,922 vs. 3,660) decreased. The distribution of crashes by lighting condition remained very similar, with the majority occurring in daylight in both years (34,958 in 2016 and 34,170 in 2015).

Weather

Clear31,171 (62.3%)

↑3.5%prior 30,130

Cloudy12,171 (24.3%)

↑13.9%prior 10,682

Rain2,518 (5.0%)

↓-34.6%prior 3,851

Snow2,341 (4.7%)

↓-12.6%prior 2,677

Freezing rain/drizzle712 (1.4%)

↑22.3%prior 582

Blowing Snow452 (0.9%)

↑29.9%prior 348

Fog, smoke, smog391 (0.8%)

↑15.3%prior 339

Severe Winds133 (0.3%)

↑37.1%prior 97

Sleet, hail70 (0.1%)

↑1.4%prior 69

Other (explain in narrative)58 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight34,958 (69.6%)

↑2.3%prior 34,170

Dark - roadway lighted7,200 (14.3%)

↑3.3%prior 6,972

Dark - roadway not lighted5,458 (10.9%)

↑1.2%prior 5,391

Dusk1,323 (2.6%)

↑4.8%prior 1,262

Dawn1,088 (2.2%)

↑9.1%prior 997

Dark - unknown roadway lighting196 (0.4%)

↓-14.8%prior 230

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry37,092 (74.0%)

↑7.6%prior 34,484

Wet5,884 (11.7%)

↓-12.0%prior 6,683

Snow2,922 (5.8%)

↓-20.2%prior 3,660

Ice/frost2,443 (4.9%)

↑5.3%prior 2,320

Gravel1,028 (2.0%)

↓-0.4%prior 1,032

Slush589 (1.2%)

↑7.9%prior 546

Mud, dirt68 (0.1%)

↓-20.0%prior 85

Other (explain in narrative)58 (0.1%)

↓-20.5%prior 73

Sand40 (0.1%)

↑21.2%prior 33

Water (standing or moving)20 (0.0%)

↑33.3%prior 15

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota brands appearing most frequently in both 2016 and 2015. Ford was the top make in both years, with its count increasing from 15,399 to 15,527. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes showed minimal change, with the 26-34 age group being the largest cohort in both 2016 (17,069 people) and 2015 (18,420 people).

Top Vehicle Makes (96,681 vehicles)

FORD15,527 (16.1%)

↑0.8%prior 15,399

CHEVROLET9,769 (10.1%)

↑28.6%prior 7,597

CHEV9,618 (9.9%)

↓-14.9%prior 11,308

TOYT3,674 (3.8%)

↓-10.5%prior 4,104

DODGE3,486 (3.6%)

↑19.7%prior 2,912

DODG3,314 (3.4%)

↓-19.4%prior 4,113

TOYOTA3,306 (3.4%)

↑30.1%prior 2,541

JEEP2,900 (3%)

↑6.9%prior 2,712

GMC2,778 (2.9%)

↑4.2%prior 2,667

HOND2,442 (2.5%)

↓-12.2%prior 2,780

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

12,290 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (73,639 persons with recorded sex)

Male41,258 (56.0%)

↓-10.9%prior 46,316

Female32,381 (44.0%)

↓-11.4%prior 36,542

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · 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: 2016-01-01 through 2016-12-31
Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2016-01-01 through 2016-12-31 (366 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 56,069
Total persons involved: 109,253
Total vehicles involved: 96,681

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: 2016." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2016-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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56,069 CRASHES INIOWA, IA2016