ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · DECEMBER 2022
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
Authentication: None required. Public endpoint.
GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/iowa/statewide/december-2022-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
6,027 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
DECEMBER 2022
In December 2022, there were 6,027 total crashes statewide, a 17.0% increase from the 5,150 crashes recorded in December 2021. Despite this rise in total incidents, the number of fatalities decreased from 27 to 22. The most notable year-over-year shift was a 132% increase in crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions,' which rose from 396 to 920 incidents, becoming the leading contributing factor.
6,027
▲ 17.0%was 5,150
Total Crash Events
22
▼ -18.5%was 27
Persons Killed
1,495
▼ -3.4%was 1,547
Persons Injured
21
▼ -16.0%was 25
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (22) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (21) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crashes in Iowa showed a significant upward trend, increasing by 17.0% from 5,150 in December 2021 to 6,027 in December 2022. In contrast to the rising crash volume, key severity metrics trended downward. Total fatalities decreased by 18.5% from 27 to 22, and the total number of injuries declined by 3.4% from 1,547 to 1,495.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
20
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
31
Pedestrians Injured
10
Cyclists Injured
1,451
Motorists Injured
3
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak hour for crashes remained consistent at the 5 p.m. hour for both periods, with the number of incidents during this time increasing from 615 to 675. However, the peak day for crashes shifted from Friday in December 2021 (1,002 crashes) to Thursday in December 2022 (1,384 crashes). Crash volumes on Monday and Thursday saw the most substantial year-over-year increases.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes was lower in December 2022 compared to the prior year. Crashes resulting in no injuries made up a larger proportion of the total, increasing from 73.6% to 76.8%. Concurrently, the share of fatal crashes decreased from 0.5% to 0.3% of all incidents, and serious injury crashes fell from 2.0% to 1.3%. Overall, the percentage of crashes involving any type of injury declined from 25.9% to 22.9% year-over-year.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 21 fatal crash events resulted in 22 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The ranking of top contributing factors changed notably between the two periods. 'Driving too fast for conditions' became the primary cause in December 2022, with its incident count rising by 132% from 396 to 920. This displaced 'Animal' collisions, which fell to the second-ranked cause after a 12.2% decrease in count from 787 to 691. Crashes involving a vehicle that 'Ran off road - left' also increased substantially, with the count rising 78.8% from 358 to 640.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Adverse environmental conditions were a more prominent factor in crashes during December 2022. The number of crashes occurring in 'Snow' conditions rose from 230 to 929, and collisions on roads with 'Snow' or 'Ice/frost' increased from a combined 900 incidents to 2,539. As a result, the share of crashes taking place on dry road surfaces decreased from 58.3% in December 2021 to 32.6% in December 2022. Lighting conditions remained proportionally stable, with daylight crashes accounting for approximately half of all incidents in both periods.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota being the most common in both periods. The total number of vehicles in crashes grew by 17.2% from 8,576 to 10,053, tracking closely with the overall increase in crash incidents. The demographic profile of persons involved also showed stability, with the 26-34 and 35-44 age groups consistently representing the largest shares in both December 2021 and December 2022.
Top Vehicle Makes (10,053 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,727 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (9,027 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31 · 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: 2022-12-01 through 2022-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2022-12-01 through 2022-12-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 6,027
- Total persons involved: 13,003
- Total vehicles involved: 10,053
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: December 2022." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2022-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/december-2022-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS
Period: 2022-12-01 – 2022-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved