ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · MARCH 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/march-2021-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
3,505 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
MARCH 2021
In March 2021, Iowa recorded 3,505 motor vehicle crashes, a 17.3% increase from the 2,989 crashes reported in March 2020. This rise in total collisions was accompanied by an increase in crash fatalities, which grew from 14 to 18 year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes also rose from 13 in the prior period to 17 in the current period.
3,505
▲ 17.3%was 2,989
Total Crash Events
18
▲ 28.6%was 14
Persons Killed
1,067
▲ 11.0%was 961
Persons Injured
17
▲ 30.8%was 13
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (18) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (17) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crash trends in March 2021 show an increase compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes rose by 17.3%, from 2,989 to 3,505. Similarly, total injuries increased by 11.0% to 1,067, and fatalities saw a 28.6% rise, increasing from 14 to 18.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
16
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
27
Pedestrians Injured
18
Cyclists Injured
1,021
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · 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, with both periods identifying Monday as the peak day for collisions and the 4 PM hour as the peak time. In March 2021, the volume of crashes on the peak day increased to 662 from 516 in the prior year. Similarly, crashes during the 4 PM peak hour rose from 226 to 315.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The distribution of crash severity remained relatively stable between March 2020 and March 2021, despite an increase in the total number of incidents. The count of fatal crashes rose from 13 to 17, representing a slight increase in their share of total crashes from 0.4% to 0.5%. The proportion of serious injury crashes held steady at 2.2%, while the shares of minor injury and no-injury crashes saw minimal changes.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 17 fatal crash events resulted in 18 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent in rank between March 2020 and March 2021, with "Animal" (449 crashes) and "Followed too close" (351 crashes) as the top two causes in the current period. However, the number of crashes attributed to several top factors increased year-over-year. Crashes involving "Followed too close" rose from 278 to 351, while incidents related to "FTYROW: Making left turn" increased from 105 to 152. "Ran Traffic Signal" also saw an increase in count from 114 to 145 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
A larger proportion of crashes in March 2021 occurred under ideal driving conditions compared to March 2020. Crashes on dry roads increased from 66.5% to 71.8% of the monthly total, with the absolute count rising from 1,988 to 2,518. Similarly, the share of crashes in clear weather rose from 56.5% to 61.0%. Conversely, the number of crashes on wet roads decreased from 489 to 415, and those in snowy conditions fell from 70 to 59.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The most common vehicle makes involved in crashes, including Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota, remained consistent in ranking year-over-year, with the number of involved vehicles from each make increasing. Analysis of persons involved in crashes shows an increase across all age groups compared to the prior year. Notably, the 65+ age group saw a 27.6% increase in involvement, rising from 626 individuals in March 2020 to 799 in March 2021.
Top Vehicle Makes (5,995 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,196 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (5,298 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · 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: 2021-03-01 through 2021-03-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2021-03-01 through 2021-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 3,505
- Total persons involved: 8,036
- Total vehicles involved: 5,995
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: March 2021." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/march-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: 2021-03-01 – 2021-03-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved