ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · JANUARY 2018
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/january-2018-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
5,068 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
JANUARY 2018
In January 2018, there were 5,068 total traffic crashes, a 13.0% increase from the 4,484 crashes recorded in January 2017. While total collisions rose, the most notable year-over-year shift was the divergence in outcomes: fatalities increased by 25% from 20 to 25, whereas the total number of injuries decreased slightly by 1.2% from 1,340 to 1,324.
5,068
▲ 13.0%was 4,484
Total Crash Events
25
▲ 25.0%was 20
Persons Killed
1,324
▼ -1.2%was 1,340
Persons Injured
22
▲ 15.8%was 19
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (25) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (22) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The data indicates a rising trend in traffic collisions for January compared to the previous year. Total crashes increased from 4,484 in January 2017 to 5,068 in January 2018, a 13.0% rise. This upward trend is also reflected in the number of fatal crashes, which grew from 19 to 22, and total fatalities, which increased from 20 to 25.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
25
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
40
Pedestrians Injured
5
Cyclists Injured
1,278
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes remained consistent year-over-year. Tuesday was the peak day for crashes in both January 2017 (871 crashes) and January 2018 (930 crashes). Similarly, the 5 p.m. hour was the peak time for collisions in both periods, with counts increasing from 376 to 393. The overall distribution of crashes throughout the week and day did not show significant shifts.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The proportion of fatal crashes was stable at 0.4% for both periods, although the absolute count of fatal crashes increased from 19 to 22. There was a shift toward less severe outcomes in injury-related crashes, with the share of serious injury crashes decreasing from 1.6% to 1.0% and minor injury crashes falling from 7.8% to 6.5%. Consequently, the proportion of crashes resulting in no injury rose from 73.8% in the prior year to 76.5% in the current period.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 22 fatal crash events resulted in 25 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors remained consistent between the two periods. "Driving too fast for conditions" was the top factor in both years, with its crash count increasing by 28.4% from 475 to 610. The second and third-ranked factors, "Animal" and "Followed too close," also saw their counts rise from 444 to 490 and 395 to 456, respectively. Notably, crashes attributed to "Lost Control" decreased in count from 374 to 317, causing it to fall from the 4th to the 6th position in the rankings.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
There was a significant shift in reported environmental conditions year-over-year. The number of crashes occurring in "Clear" weather increased from 1,604 to 2,910, while crashes during "Freezing rain/drizzle" decreased from 397 to 158. Despite more clear-weather incidents, the number of crashes on "Snow" covered roads rose sharply from 331 to 904. Crashes in daylight conditions increased from 2,151 to 2,665, while those in unlighted dark conditions fell from 721 to 601.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The most common vehicle makes involved in crashes were consistent across both periods, with Ford and Chevrolet models leading in both years. The number of vehicles involved increased in line with the overall rise in crashes. An analysis of persons involved shows increases across most age groups, with the 26-34 age bracket seeing a notable rise from 1,462 individuals in January 2017 to 1,798 in January 2018.
Top Vehicle Makes (8,767 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,693 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (7,712 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31 · 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: 2018-01-01 through 2018-01-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-01-01 through 2018-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 5,068
- Total persons involved: 11,267
- Total vehicles involved: 8,767
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: January 2018." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2018-01-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/january-2018-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: 2018-01-01 – 2018-01-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved