ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · JULY 2021
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/july-2021-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
4,213 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
JULY 2021
In July 2021, there were 4,213 total crashes statewide, an increase of 6.9% from the 3,940 crashes recorded in July 2020. Despite the overall rise in collisions, the number of fatalities saw a notable year-over-year decrease. Fatalities dropped from 44 in the prior period to 34 in the current period, representing a 22.7% reduction.
4,213
▲ 6.9%was 3,940
Total Crash Events
34
▼ -22.7%was 44
Persons Killed
1,546
▲ 2.8%was 1,504
Persons Injured
31
▼ -20.5%was 39
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (34) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (31) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash trends show an overall increase in volume year-over-year. Total crashes rose from 3,940 in July 2020 to 4,213 in July 2021. However, this increase in crashes did not correspond to a rise in all severity levels, as total fatalities decreased from 44 to 34, while total injuries increased slightly from 1,504 to 1,546.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
32
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
25
Pedestrians Injured
27
Cyclists Injured
1,490
Motorists Injured
4
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · 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 largely consistent year-over-year. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both July 2021 (834 crashes) and July 2020 (712 crashes). The peak hour for collisions shifted slightly earlier, moving from 5 p.m. in the prior period (305 crashes) to 3 p.m. in the current period (330 crashes), though the afternoon hours remained the busiest time on roadways in both years.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes increased, the number of fatal crashes decreased from 39 in July 2020 to 31 in July 2021, and the fatal crash rate fell from 1.0% to 0.7% of all crashes. The number of serious injury crashes increased from 101 to 122, a rise from 2.6% to 2.9% of the total. Crashes resulting in no injury made up a slightly larger share of the total, increasing from 67.1% in the prior period to 68.2% in the current period.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 31 fatal crash events resulted in 34 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The ranking of top contributing factors shifted between the two periods. In July 2021, 'Followed too close' was the leading cause with 518 crashes, an increase of 25.4% from the 413 crashes recorded in July 2020, when it was the second-leading factor. Collisions involving an 'Animal' moved from the top-ranked factor to the second, with counts increasing from 445 to 482. 'Lost Control' crashes, which were the third most common factor in the prior period with 227 incidents, decreased to 215 incidents in the current period.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The distribution of crashes across various environmental conditions remained stable year-over-year. In both July 2021 and July 2020, the vast majority of incidents occurred in clear weather (73.1% and 74.9% of total crashes, respectively) and on dry road surfaces (82.0% and 82.7%, respectively). Crashes in daylight also accounted for a consistent majority, comprising 70.5% of crashes in the current period compared to 71.8% in the prior period, indicating no significant shift in the proportion of crashes occurring in adverse conditions.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The composition of vehicles and persons involved in crashes showed little change year-over-year. The top vehicle makes involved in collisions remained consistent, with Ford and Chevrolet models collectively accounting for the highest number of vehicles in both periods. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes was also stable; the 26-34 age group was the largest cohort in both July 2021 (1,397 persons) and July 2020 (1,432 persons).
Top Vehicle Makes (7,299 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,333 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (6,070 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31 · 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: 2021-07-01 through 2021-07-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2021-07-01 through 2021-07-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 4,213
- Total persons involved: 9,477
- Total vehicles involved: 7,299
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: July 2021." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/july-2021-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: 2021-07-01 – 2021-07-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved