Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

3,564 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
APRIL 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstApril 2024

In April 2025, there were 3,564 total crashes in Iowa, an 8.5% decrease from the 3,894 crashes recorded in April 2024. While the total number of crashes and injuries (1,226, down from 1,241) declined, the number of fatalities increased slightly from 19 to 20. The most notable shift was the overall reduction in crash volume across the state, particularly in incidents involving animals and those occurring on wet roads.

3,564

▼ -8.5%was 3,894

Total Crash Events

20

▲ 5.3%was 19

Persons Killed

1,226

▼ -1.2%was 1,241

Persons Injured

18

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (20) 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 · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, traffic crashes showed a downward trend in April 2025 compared to the same month in the prior year. The total number of crashes decreased by 8.5%, from 3,894 to 3,564. This trend included a slight reduction in total injuries, which fell by 1.2% from 1,241 to 1,226, although fatalities increased by one person from 19 to 20.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

18

Motorists Killed

Prior: 17↑5.9%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

25

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 26↓-3.8%

36

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 22↑63.6%

1,158

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,188↓-2.5%

7

Other Injured

Prior: 5↑40.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed some shifts between April 2024 and April 2025. The peak day for crashes moved from Tuesday (702 crashes) in the prior year to Wednesday (659 crashes) in the current period. The peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 3 p.m. in both periods, though the number of crashes during this hour decreased from 368 to 346.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The number of fatal crashes remained unchanged at 18 for both April 2025 and April 2024, though the fatal crash rate per 100 crashes saw a slight increase from 0.46 to 0.51. While total crashes decreased, the number of serious injury crashes rose from 79 to 91, representing an increase in share from 2.0% to 2.6% of all crashes. Crashes resulting in minor or possible injuries decreased in both count and their combined share of total incidents.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 18 fatal crash events resulted in 20 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal18fatal crashes0.5%
→0.0%prior 18
Serious Injury91serious injury crashes2.6%
↑15.2%prior 79
Minor Injury362minor injury crashes10.2%
↓-5.5%prior 383
Possible Injury581possible injury crashes16.3%
↓-9.8%prior 644
No Injury2,512no injury crashes70.5%
↓-9.3%prior 2,770

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The top contributing factors remained largely consistent year-over-year, though their order and counts shifted. In April 2025, 'Followed too close' was the leading factor with 410 crashes, a decrease from 426 in the prior year. 'Animal' related incidents, the top factor in April 2024 with 447 crashes, dropped by 13.0% in count to 389 crashes, making it the second-leading factor in the current period. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions' decreased by 28.4% from 134 to 96, while 'Improper or erratic lane changing' incidents increased by 13.5% from 89 to 101.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Followed too close410 (11.5%)↓-3.8%prior 426
Animal389 (10.9%)↓-13.0%prior 447
FTYROW: From stop sign230 (6.5%)↓-4.6%prior 241
Other (explain in narrative): Other191 (5.4%)↓-19.1%prior 236
Ran off road - left188 (5.3%)↓-16.1%prior 224
FTYROW: Making left turn162 (4.5%)↓-15.6%prior 192
Lost Control153 (4.3%)↓-6.7%prior 164
Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction143 (4%)↑5.9%prior 135
Ran Traffic Signal138 (3.9%)→0.0%prior 138
Ran Stop Sign130 (3.6%)↓-3.7%prior 135

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes in April 2025 occurred under generally better road and weather conditions compared to April 2024. The number of crashes during rainfall dropped from 351 to 171, and incidents on wet road surfaces decreased from 635 to 301. Consequently, the share of crashes on dry roads increased from 71.0% to 79.3% of the total. The proportion of crashes occurring in daylight remained stable at approximately 71% for both periods.

Weather

Clear2,332 (73.1%)
↓-3.9%prior 2,427
Cloudy660 (20.7%)
↑4.8%prior 630
Rain171 (5.4%)
↓-51.3%prior 351
Severe Winds14 (0.4%)
↓-41.7%prior 24
Fog, smoke, smog5 (0.2%)
Freezing rain/drizzle3 (0.1%)
↓-88.5%prior 26
Snow2 (0.1%)
↓-95.8%prior 48
Other (explain in narrative)2 (0.1%)
Sleet, hail2 (0.1%)
Blowing sand, soil, dirt1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,521 (78.5%)
↓-8.6%prior 2,758
Dark - roadway lighted311 (9.7%)
↓-12.9%prior 357
Dark - roadway not lighted239 (7.4%)
↓-12.8%prior 274
Dusk71 (2.2%)
↑14.5%prior 62
Dawn43 (1.3%)
↓-29.5%prior 61
Dark - unknown roadway lighting28 (0.9%)
↑27.3%prior 22

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry2,826 (88.2%)
↑2.2%prior 2,764
Wet301 (9.4%)
↓-52.6%prior 635
Gravel65 (2.0%)
↓-3.0%prior 67
Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)
Mud, dirt3 (0.1%)
Slush2 (0.1%)
↓-91.7%prior 24
Water (standing or moving)2 (0.1%)
Sand1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford and Chevrolet being the most common in both periods, followed by Toyota. The number of vehicles from these top makes involved in crashes decreased, in line with the overall reduction in incidents. Analysis of persons involved shows a decrease in crash participation across most adult age groups, most notably for the 26-34 age bracket (from 1,116 to 971 persons) and the 21-25 age bracket (from 734 to 648 persons). The number of persons in the 16-20 age group remained nearly unchanged.

Top Vehicle Makes (6,217 vehicles)

1
FORD970 (15.6%)
↓-8.8%prior 1,064
2
CHEV849 (13.7%)
↓-10.1%prior 944
3
TOYT324 (5.2%)
↓-6.6%prior 347
4
CHEVROLET310 (5%)
↓-11.7%prior 351
5
JEEP270 (4.3%)
↓-14.3%prior 315
6
HOND264 (4.2%)
↑2.3%prior 258
7
GMC237 (3.8%)
↓-7.1%prior 255
8
DODG215 (3.5%)
↓-8.9%prior 236
9
NISS204 (3.3%)
↓-8.9%prior 224
10
KIA169 (2.7%)
↓-10.1%prior 188

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (4,167 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,354 (56.5%)
↓-7.9%prior 2,555
Female1,813 (43.5%)
↓-8.4%prior 1,980

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · 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: 2025-04-01 through 2025-04-30
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-04-01 through 2025-04-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 3,564
  • Total persons involved: 6,500
  • Total vehicles involved: 6,217

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 2025." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/april-2025-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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