ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · MARCH 2023
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-2023-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
3,766 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
MARCH 2023
In March 2023, there were 3,766 total crashes recorded in Iowa, representing a 4.7% increase from the 3,598 crashes in March 2022. Despite the rise in overall incidents, total fatalities decreased from 28 to 26, and the number of injuries fell from 1,132 to 1,106. A notable year-over-year change was a significant increase in crashes attributed to driving too fast for conditions, which rose by 40.4% from 151 to 212 incidents.
3,766
▲ 4.7%was 3,598
Total Crash Events
26
▼ -7.1%was 28
Persons Killed
1,106
▼ -2.3%was 1,132
Persons Injured
21
▼ -8.7%was 23
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (26) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (21) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash volume increased year-over-year, with total crashes rising by 4.7% from 3,598 in March 2022 to 3,766 in March 2023. Despite the increase in total incidents, the human toll saw a slight decrease. Total fatalities fell from 28 to 26, and the number of people injured declined by 2.3% from 1,132 to 1,106.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
24
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
29
Pedestrians Injured
6
Cyclists Injured
1,067
Motorists Injured
4
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · 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 broadly consistent year-over-year, with Thursday being the peak day for crashes in both March 2023 (724 crashes) and March 2022 (667 crashes). The peak hour for collisions shifted one hour earlier, moving from the 4 p.m. hour in the prior year to the 3 p.m. hour in the current period, which saw 332 crashes. Weekdays continued to account for the majority of crashes in both periods.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes increased, the overall severity of those crashes decreased compared to the previous year. The fatal crash rate fell from 0.64% of all crashes in March 2022 to 0.56% in March 2023. The proportion of crashes resulting in any injury also declined from 27.3% to 25.7%, driven by a drop in the share of both serious and minor injury crashes. Consequently, the share of crashes with no reported injuries rose from 72.0% to 73.8%.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 21 fatal crash events resulted in 26 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The top three contributing factors were identical in ranking across both periods: 'Animal' (548 incidents), 'Followed too close' (305 incidents), and 'Ran off road - left' (262 incidents). However, the count for several factors shifted, with crashes involving an 'Animal' increasing by 71 incidents, a 14.9% rise in count from the prior year's 477. More significantly, crashes where 'Driving too fast for conditions' was a factor grew by 40.4% in count, from 151 incidents in March 2022 to 212 in March 2023.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The proportion of crashes occurring in adverse weather conditions increased from 44.0% in March 2022 to 47.5% in March 2023, largely due to a rise in crashes during snow, which increased in count from 178 to 348. Correspondingly, the share of crashes on snow and ice-covered road surfaces increased, while incidents on wet roads decreased from 14.5% to 7.1% of the total. The distribution of crashes by lighting conditions remained stable, with daylight hours accounting for over 60% of incidents in both periods.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The composition of vehicles and persons involved in crashes showed little change year-over-year. Ford and Chevrolet remained the top two vehicle makes involved in incidents in both March 2022 and March 2023, with their respective counts remaining largely stable. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes also saw minimal shifts. The largest age groups involved were consistently those aged 26-34, 35-44, and 16-20, with no significant changes in their proportional representation.
Top Vehicle Makes (6,292 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,010 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (5,667 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31 · 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: 2023-03-01 through 2023-03-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-03-01 through 2023-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 3,766
- Total persons involved: 8,337
- Total vehicles involved: 6,292
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 2023." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2023-03-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/march-2023-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: 2023-03-01 – 2023-03-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved