Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

52,680 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2025

All metrics benchmarked against2024

In 2025, Iowa recorded 52,680 traffic crashes, a 1.2% decrease from the 53,342 crashes reported in 2024. While the overall crash volume remained relatively stable, the most significant year-over-year change was a 27.5% reduction in total fatalities, which fell from 357 in 2024 to 259 in 2025.

52,680

▼ -1.2%was 53,342

Total Crash Events

259

▼ -27.5%was 357

Persons Killed

16,078

▼ -1.3%was 16,289

Persons Injured

246

▼ -24.3%was 325

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (259) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (246) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 1 crash with unreported severity is not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, key traffic safety metrics showed a positive trend in 2025 compared to the prior year. Total crashes decreased by 1.2% from 53,342 to 52,680, and the number of people injured saw a similar 1.3% decline from 16,289 to 16,078. The most substantial improvement was in fatalities, which dropped by 27.5% year-over-year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

259

Other Killed

Prior: 357↓-27.5%

16,078

Other Injured

Prior: 16,289↓-1.3%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

Temporal crash patterns remained largely consistent year-over-year, with Friday being the peak day for crashes in both 2025 (8,683 crashes) and 2024 (9,092 crashes). A minor shift occurred in the daily peak, with the 3 PM hour seeing the most crashes in 2025 (4,290 incidents), whereas the 5 PM hour was the peak in 2024 (4,299 incidents). The afternoon hours between 3 PM and 5 PM consistently represented the period with the highest crash frequency in both years.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes lessened in 2025 compared to 2024. The number of fatal crashes fell from 325 to 246, and their proportion of all crashes decreased from 0.6% to 0.5%. Crashes resulting in serious injuries also decreased in both count (from 1,157 to 1,084) and proportion (from 2.2% to 2.1%). Correspondingly, the share of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 72.7% in 2024 to 73.3% in 2025.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 246 fatal crash events resulted in 259 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal246fatal crashes0.5%

↓-24.3%prior 325

Serious Injury1,084serious injury crashes2.1%

↓-6.3%prior 1,157

Minor Injury4,886minor injury crashes9.3%

↓-3.7%prior 5,072

Possible Injury7,845possible injury crashes14.9%

↓-1.8%prior 7,991

No Injury38,618no injury crashes73.3%

↓-0.5%prior 38,797

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

The distribution of crashes across different lighting conditions remained stable between 2024 and 2025, with daylight crashes accounting for the majority in both periods. Analysis of road surface conditions reveals a shift, as the number of crashes on snowy roads increased from 2,555 in 2024 to 3,370 in 2025. This represents a proportional increase, with snow-related crashes accounting for 6.4% of all incidents in 2025, up from 4.8% the previous year.

Weather

132,999 (63.0%)

↓-1.8%prior 33,615

27,241 (13.8%)

↑2.3%prior 7,081

776,356 (12.1%)

↓-4.3%prior 6,643

72,216 (4.2%)

↑34.1%prior 1,652

51,837 (3.5%)

↓-18.0%prior 2,239

8568 (1.1%)

↑31.2%prior 433

4401 (0.8%)

↓-23.8%prior 526

3340 (0.6%)

↓-33.1%prior 508

9249 (0.5%)

↑91.5%prior 130

9888 (0.2%)

↓-5.4%prior 93

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

132,720 (62.1%)

↑0.5%prior 32,561

46,686 (12.7%)

↓-0.6%prior 6,725

776,081 (11.5%)

↓-3.2%prior 6,280

54,443 (8.4%)

↓-6.7%prior 4,760

21,179 (2.2%)

↓-8.3%prior 1,286

3965 (1.8%)

↓-3.4%prior 999

6396 (0.8%)

↓-21.4%prior 504

9210 (0.4%)

↓-7.5%prior 227

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

135,162 (67.0%)

↓-1.4%prior 35,644

776,355 (12.1%)

↓-4.3%prior 6,639

24,313 (8.2%)

↓-10.2%prior 4,805

43,370 (6.4%)

↑31.9%prior 2,555

31,955 (3.7%)

↓-9.4%prior 2,158

10797 (1.5%)

↓-0.3%prior 799

5399 (0.8%)

↓-3.6%prior 414

9849 (0.1%)

↑58.1%prior 31

635 (0.1%)

↓-25.5%prior 47

710 (0.0%)

↓-33.3%prior 15

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes were consistent year-over-year, with Ford and Chevrolet models being the most frequently recorded in both 2025 and 2024. Ford, the top make, saw its involvement decrease from 14,387 vehicles in 2024 to 13,943 in 2025, but the overall ranking of the top five makes remained stable. Similarly, the age distribution of persons involved in crashes showed little change; the 26-34 age group represented the largest cohort in both periods, followed by the 35-44 age group.

Top Vehicle Makes (90,245 vehicles)

FORD13,943 (15.5%)

↓-3.1%prior 14,387

CHEV12,390 (13.7%)

↑1.3%prior 12,228

TOYT4,681 (5.2%)

↑5.4%prior 4,440

CHEVROLET4,182 (4.6%)

↓-11.1%prior 4,704

JEEP4,177 (4.6%)

↑0.3%prior 4,166

HOND3,933 (4.4%)

↑6.2%prior 3,705

GMC3,249 (3.6%)

↓-2.1%prior 3,318

NISS3,208 (3.6%)

↑4.9%prior 3,058

DODG3,011 (3.3%)

↓-1.8%prior 3,066

KIA2,720 (3%)

↑4.1%prior 2,612

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

5,655 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · 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: 2025-01-01 through 2025-12-31
Report generated: August 4, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2025-01-01 through 2025-12-31 (365 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 52,680
Total persons involved: 29,200
Total vehicles involved: 90,245

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: 2025." Published August 4, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2025-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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52,680 CRASHES INIOWA, IA2025