Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

4,043 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
FEBRUARY 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstFebruary 2024

In February 2025, there were 4,043 traffic crashes across Iowa, a 23.0% increase from the 3,287 crashes recorded in February 2024. While total fatalities remained stable, the overall rise in incidents was marked by a significant increase in crashes related to adverse winter weather. The number of crashes attributed to driving too fast for conditions surged from 122 to 459, and incidents on snowy or icy roads became far more frequent.

4,043

▲ 23.0%was 3,287

Total Crash Events

Persons Killed

1,046

▲ 9.2%was 958

Persons Injured

▼ -5.9%was 17

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (17) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (16) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year, traffic crashes in February increased by 23.0%, rising from 3,287 in 2024 to 4,043 in 2025. Total injuries also saw an increase of 9.2% from 958 to 1,046. The number of fatalities remained unchanged at 17 for both periods.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1↑100.0%

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Motorists Killed

Prior: 16↓-6.3%

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 27↓-40.7%

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 15↓-53.3%

1,022

Motorists Injured

Prior: 911↑12.2%

Other Injured

Prior: 5↓-80.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal pattern of crashes shifted significantly between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Friday (642 crashes) in February 2024 to Wednesday (931 crashes) in February 2025. Similarly, the peak hour for collisions shifted earlier, from 6 p.m. in the prior year to 3 p.m. in the current year, with a notable concentration of crashes occurring on Wednesday and Thursday in the current period.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the total number of crashes increased, the overall severity profile shifted towards less severe outcomes as a percentage of the total. The fatal crash rate decreased from 0.52% to 0.40% year-over-year, with 16 fatal crashes in February 2025 compared to 17 in the prior year. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries also declined from 1.8% to 1.2%, while no-injury crashes increased as a share of the total from 73.7% to 76.0%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 16 fatal crash events resulted in 17 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal16fatal crashes0.4%

↓-5.9%prior 17

Serious Injury48serious injury crashes1.2%

↓-17.2%prior 58

Minor Injury305minor injury crashes7.5%

↑5.2%prior 290

Possible Injury600possible injury crashes14.8%

↑19.8%prior 501

No Injury3,074no injury crashes76%

↑27.0%prior 2,421

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factors for crashes changed significantly year-over-year, reflecting more challenging driving conditions. In February 2025, 'Driving too fast for conditions' became the top factor with 459 crashes, a 276% increase in count from 122 crashes in the prior year. 'Ran off road - left' also more than doubled in count from 222 to 458 incidents. Conversely, crashes involving animals, the top factor in the prior year with 458 incidents, decreased to 386 incidents in the current period.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Driving too fast for conditions459 (11.4%)↑276.2%prior 122

Ran off road - left458 (11.3%)↑106.3%prior 222

Animal386 (9.5%)↓-15.7%prior 458

Followed too close315 (7.8%)↑13.3%prior 278

Lost Control222 (5.5%)↑41.4%prior 157

Other (explain in narrative): Other222 (5.5%)↑10.4%prior 201

FTYROW: From stop sign181 (4.5%)↑11.0%prior 163

Ran off road - straight150 (3.7%)↑38.9%prior 108

FTYROW: Making left turn128 (3.2%)↓-7.2%prior 138

Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction120 (3%)↑5.3%prior 114

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Adverse weather and road conditions were significantly more prevalent in crashes during February 2025 compared to the prior year. Crashes occurring in snowy weather increased from 140 to 487, and those in freezing rain increased from 10 to 208. Correspondingly, crashes on snowy or icy road surfaces rose sharply, with 777 crashes on snow (up from 152) and 581 on ice or frost (up from 104). As a result, crashes on dry roads decreased as a proportion of the total, from 76.1% in the prior year to 49.4% in the current year.

Weather

Clear2,279 (62.0%)

↓-2.3%prior 2,333

Cloudy550 (15.0%)

↑55.8%prior 353

Snow487 (13.2%)

↑247.9%prior 140

Freezing rain/drizzle208 (5.7%)

↑1980.0%prior 10

Blowing Snow92 (2.5%)

↑820.0%prior 10

Severe Winds22 (0.6%)

↑340.0%prior 5

Other (explain in narrative)19 (0.5%)

↑90.0%prior 10

Fog, smoke, smog10 (0.3%)

↓-33.3%prior 15

Rain8 (0.2%)

↓-27.3%prior 11

Sleet, hail2 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,397 (64.6%)

↑30.5%prior 1,837

Dark - roadway lighted659 (17.8%)

↑25.5%prior 525

Dark - roadway not lighted409 (11.0%)

↑17.9%prior 347

Dusk114 (3.1%)

↑26.7%prior 90

Dawn94 (2.5%)

↑9.3%prior 86

Dark - unknown roadway lighting35 (0.9%)

↑6.1%prior 33

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry1,996 (54.1%)

↓-20.2%prior 2,500

Snow777 (21.0%)

↑411.2%prior 152

Ice/frost581 (15.7%)

↑458.7%prior 104

Wet217 (5.9%)

↑149.4%prior 87

Slush66 (1.8%)

↑407.7%prior 13

Gravel47 (1.3%)

↑23.7%prior 38

Other (explain in narrative)6 (0.2%)

Mud, dirt2 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with Ford (1,066 vehicles) and Chevrolet (987 vehicles) being the most common in February 2025, similar to the previous year. The age demographics of persons involved in crashes were also largely stable, with no major shifts in representation across age groups. The 26-34 age group saw a slight increase in its share of total persons involved, from 14.5% in the prior period to 16.3% in the current period.

Top Vehicle Makes (6,871 vehicles)

FORD1,066 (15.5%)

↑16.8%prior 913

CHEV987 (14.4%)

↑31.4%prior 751

TOYT377 (5.5%)

↑45.0%prior 260

JEEP336 (4.9%)

↑29.2%prior 260

CHEVROLET313 (4.6%)

↑6.8%prior 293

HOND283 (4.1%)

↑18.9%prior 238

GMC232 (3.4%)

↑13.2%prior 205

NISS230 (3.3%)

↑27.8%prior 180

DODG229 (3.3%)

↑25.8%prior 182

KIA227 (3.3%)

↑41.9%prior 160

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (4,667 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,787 (59.7%)

↑34.1%prior 2,079

Female1,880 (40.3%)

↑17.4%prior 1,602

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · 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: 2025-02-01 through 2025-02-28
Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2025-02-01 through 2025-02-28 (28 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 4,043
Total persons involved: 7,064
Total vehicles involved: 6,871

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: February 2025." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/february-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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4,043 CRASHES INIOWA, IAFEBRUARY 2025