Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

3,894 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
APRIL 2024

All metrics benchmarked againstApril 2023

In April 2024, Iowa recorded 3,894 traffic crashes, a 3.7% increase from the 3,754 crashes reported in April 2023. Despite the overall rise in crashes, the number of fatalities saw a significant year-over-year decrease. Total fatalities fell from 26 in April 2023 to 19 in April 2024, representing a 26.9% reduction.

3,894

▲ 3.7%was 3,754

Total Crash Events

▼ -26.9%was 26

Persons Killed

1,241

▼ -4.2%was 1,296

Persons Injured

▼ -25.0%was 24

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (19) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (18) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year, the total number of crashes in Iowa increased by 3.7%, from 3,754 in April 2023 to 3,894 in April 2024. However, the outcomes of these crashes were less severe on average. Total injuries decreased by 4.2% from 1,296 to 1,241, and fatalities saw a more substantial drop of 26.9%, from 26 to 19.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Motorists Killed

Prior: 24↓-29.2%

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 19↑36.8%

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 22→0.0%

1,188

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,250↓-5.0%

Other Injured

Prior: 5→0.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between April 2023 and April 2024. The peak day for crashes moved from Friday (619 crashes) in the prior year to Tuesday (702 crashes) in the current period. Similarly, the peak hour shifted one hour earlier, from 4 p.m. in 2023 (347 crashes) to 3 p.m. in 2024 (368 crashes). Crashes on Monday and Tuesday increased significantly, while weekend crash counts on Saturday and Sunday declined.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crash severity decreased year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes fell from 24 in April 2023 to 18 in April 2024, and their share of all crashes dropped from 0.6% to 0.5%. Serious injury crashes also declined from 96 to 79. Conversely, crashes resulting in no injury increased from 2,610 to 2,770, making up a larger portion of the total at 71.1% in 2024 compared to 69.5% in 2023.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 18 fatal crash events resulted in 19 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal18fatal crashes0.5%

↓-25.0%prior 24

Serious Injury79serious injury crashes2%

↓-17.7%prior 96

Minor Injury383minor injury crashes9.8%

↓-3.0%prior 395

Possible Injury644possible injury crashes16.5%

↑2.4%prior 629

No Injury2,770no injury crashes71.1%

↑6.1%prior 2,610

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The ranking of top contributing factors shifted between the two periods. Collisions involving an "Animal" became the leading factor in April 2024 with 447 incidents, an increase of 57 crashes (a 14.6% rise in count) from 390 in the prior year. "Followed too close," the top factor in 2023 with 439 crashes, dropped to the second position with 426 crashes in 2024. Notably, crashes attributed to "Driving too fast for conditions" saw a 55.8% increase in count, rising from 86 to 134 incidents year-over-year.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal447 (11.5%)↑14.6%prior 390

Followed too close426 (10.9%)↓-3.0%prior 439

FTYROW: From stop sign241 (6.2%)↑12.1%prior 215

Other (explain in narrative): Other236 (6.1%)↑4.4%prior 226

Ran off road - left224 (5.8%)↑9.3%prior 205

FTYROW: Making left turn192 (4.9%)↑15.0%prior 167

Lost Control164 (4.2%)↓-14.6%prior 192

Ran Traffic Signal138 (3.5%)↓-13.8%prior 160

Ran Stop Sign135 (3.5%)↑19.5%prior 113

Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction135 (3.5%)↑10.7%prior 122

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes in adverse weather conditions increased notably in April 2024 compared to the previous year. The number of crashes occurring in rain more than tripled, from 113 to 351, and their share of total crashes rose from 3.0% to 9.0%. Correspondingly, collisions on wet road surfaces saw a significant jump from 254 to 635 incidents. The majority of crashes in both periods occurred in daylight and on dry roads, though the share of dry road crashes fell from 80.8% to 71.0%.

Weather

Clear2,427 (69.1%)

↓-6.6%prior 2,598

Cloudy630 (17.9%)

↑3.1%prior 611

Rain351 (10.0%)

↑210.6%prior 113

Snow48 (1.4%)

↑108.7%prior 23

Freezing rain/drizzle26 (0.7%)

↑4.0%prior 25

Severe Winds24 (0.7%)

↑33.3%prior 18

Sleet, hail3 (0.1%)

Fog, smoke, smog2 (0.1%)

Blowing Snow2 (0.1%)

↓-83.3%prior 12

Other (explain in narrative)1 (0.0%)

↓-83.3%prior 6

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,758 (78.0%)

↑4.3%prior 2,644

Dark - roadway lighted357 (10.1%)

↓-8.9%prior 392

Dark - roadway not lighted274 (7.8%)

↑14.2%prior 240

Dusk62 (1.8%)

↓-30.3%prior 89

Dawn61 (1.7%)

↑38.6%prior 44

Dark - unknown roadway lighting22 (0.6%)

↑69.2%prior 13

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry2,764 (78.5%)

↓-8.9%prior 3,033

Wet635 (18.0%)

↑150.0%prior 254

Gravel67 (1.9%)

↓-10.7%prior 75

Slush24 (0.7%)

↑84.6%prior 13

Snow21 (0.6%)

↑61.5%prior 13

Ice/frost5 (0.1%)

↓-78.3%prior 23

Mud, dirt4 (0.1%)

↓-50.0%prior 8

Other (explain in narrative)2 (0.1%)

Oil1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The composition of vehicles involved in crashes remained stable year-over-year. Ford and Chevrolet (including its abbreviation "CHEV") were the top two makes involved in collisions in both April 2023 and April 2024, with both seeing an increase in their total counts. The top five rankings, which also include Toyota, Jeep, and Honda, were largely unchanged. Similarly, the age distribution of persons involved in crashes showed minimal change, with the 26-34 age group consistently representing the largest share in both periods.

Top Vehicle Makes (6,811 vehicles)

FORD1,064 (15.6%)

↑8.6%prior 980

CHEV944 (13.9%)

↑8.9%prior 867

CHEVROLET351 (5.2%)

↓-4.9%prior 369

TOYT347 (5.1%)

↑13.4%prior 306

JEEP315 (4.6%)

↑13.7%prior 277

HOND258 (3.8%)

↓-12.8%prior 296

GMC255 (3.7%)

↑8.1%prior 236

DODG236 (3.5%)

↑3.1%prior 229

NISS224 (3.3%)

↓-5.9%prior 238

NR193 (2.8%)

↑17.0%prior 165

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (4,535 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,555 (56.3%)

↓-22.9%prior 3,316

Female1,980 (43.7%)

↓-24.4%prior 2,619

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30 · 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: 2024-04-01 through 2024-04-30
Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2024-04-01 through 2024-04-30 (30 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 3,894
Total persons involved: 7,037
Total vehicles involved: 6,811

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: April 2024." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-30. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/april-2024-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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3,894 CRASHES INIOWA, IAAPRIL 2024