ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · JANUARY 2020
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-2020-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
5,253 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
JANUARY 2020
In January 2020, there were 5,253 crashes across Iowa, a 6.8% decrease from the 5,637 crashes recorded in January 2019. Despite the overall decline in collisions, the number of fatalities increased from 21 to 24 year-over-year. This resulted in a higher fatal crash rate, which rose from 0.34 to 0.42 per 100 crashes.
5,253
▼ -6.8%was 5,637
Total Crash Events
24
▲ 14.3%was 21
Persons Killed
1,337
▼ -9.5%was 1,478
Persons Injured
22
▲ 15.8%was 19
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (24) 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 · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic collisions decreased in January 2020 compared to the same month in the previous year. Total crashes fell by 6.8%, from 5,637 to 5,253, and total injuries saw a similar decline of 9.5%. However, this downward trend did not extend to the most severe outcomes, as total fatalities increased by 14.3% from 21 to 24.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
5
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
18
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
37
Pedestrians Injured
8
Cyclists Injured
1,291
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes showed a significant shift between the two periods. While the peak hour for collisions remained the 5 p.m. hour, the peak day changed from Saturday (1,049 crashes) in January 2019 to Friday (1,240 crashes) in January 2020. Crash volumes on Friday increased substantially from 716 in the prior year, while Saturday saw a notable decrease in collisions from 1,049 to 605.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Although total crashes declined, the severity of crashes increased in January 2020 compared to the prior year. The number of fatal crashes rose from 19 to 22, and the fatal crash rate increased from 0.34 to 0.42 per 100 crashes. While the count of serious injury crashes decreased from 77 to 57, the proportion of crashes resulting in no injuries fell from 77.3% to 76.0% of all collisions.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 22 fatal crash events resulted in 24 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with "Driving too fast for conditions" being the top factor in both January 2020 (930 crashes) and January 2019 (945 crashes). However, the counts for most top factors decreased; for instance, crashes attributed to "Ran off road - left" fell from 583 to 495. In contrast, crashes involving a driver who "Ran Traffic Signal" saw an increase in count from 166 to 177.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Environmental conditions associated with crashes shifted notably year-over-year. Crashes occurring during freezing rain or drizzle nearly doubled, increasing from 248 to 472, and collisions on icy or frosty road surfaces rose from 986 to 1,177. Conversely, crashes in clear weather and on dry roads both decreased. While collisions during daylight hours fell from 3,195 to 2,659, there was an increase in crashes occurring in darkness on both lighted and unlighted roadways.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The composition of vehicles and persons involved in crashes showed little change year-over-year. The most frequently involved makes in January 2020 were Ford (1,437 vehicles) and Chevrolet (1,644 vehicles combined), maintaining their top positions from January 2019, though their total counts decreased in line with the overall reduction in crashes. Similarly, the age distribution of persons involved in collisions remained consistent, with the 26-34 age group representing the largest share in both periods at approximately 16% of all individuals involved.
Top Vehicle Makes (8,867 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,602 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (7,932 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31 · 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: 2020-01-01 through 2020-01-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-01-01 through 2020-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 5,253
- Total persons involved: 11,441
- Total vehicles involved: 8,867
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 2020." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/january-2020-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: 2020-01-01 – 2020-01-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved