Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

5,703 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
NOVEMBER 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstNovember 2024

In November 2025, Iowa recorded 5,703 total crashes, an 8.3% increase from the 5,268 crashes reported in November 2024. While total fatalities decreased from 21 to 17 year-over-year, the most notable change was a substantial rise in crashes occurring during snowy weather conditions, which increased from 72 to 464.

5,703

▲ 8.3%was 5,268

Total Crash Events

17

▼ -19.0%was 21

Persons Killed

1,393

▲ 3.0%was 1,353

Persons Injured

17

▼ -15.0%was 20

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (17) 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 · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic collisions in Iowa increased by 8.3% in November 2025 compared to the same month in 2024, rising from 5,268 to 5,703 incidents. Despite the rise in total crashes and a slight 3.0% increase in injuries from 1,353 to 1,393, the number of fatalities fell from 21 to 17.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

5

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 3↑66.7%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

11

Motorists Killed

Prior: 18↓-38.9%

1

Other Killed

Prior: 0→%

28

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 30↓-6.7%

31

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 23↑34.8%

1,330

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,294↑2.8%

4

Other Injured

Prior: 6↓-33.3%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · 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 shift in the peak day of the week between the two periods. In November 2025, Saturday was the day with the most crashes (1,093), a change from Friday in the prior year (1,008). The 5 p.m. hour remained the peak time for collisions in both periods, with 708 crashes in the current period and 702 in the prior. Notably, crashes on Saturday increased by 30% from 841 incidents in November 2024.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes shifted slightly year-over-year, as the fatal crash rate decreased from 0.38% of all crashes in November 2024 to 0.30% in November 2025. This corresponded to 17 fatal crashes compared to 20 in the prior year. Conversely, the count of serious injury crashes rose from 68 to 87, representing a proportional increase from 1.3% to 1.5% of all incidents. The share of no-injury crashes also increased slightly from 77.8% to 78.3% of the total.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal17fatal crashes0.3%
↓-15.0%prior 20
Serious Injury87serious injury crashes1.5%
↑27.9%prior 68
Minor Injury419minor injury crashes7.3%
↑3.5%prior 405
Possible Injury713possible injury crashes12.5%
↑5.3%prior 677
No Injury4,467no injury crashes78.3%
↑9.0%prior 4,098

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Collisions involving animals remained the top contributing factor in both periods but saw their count decrease by 8.9% from 1,630 crashes in November 2024 to 1,485 in November 2025. The most significant year-over-year change was in crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions,' which surged in count by 142.5% from 160 incidents to 388, moving it from the ninth-ranked factor to the third. The count for 'Followed too close' also increased from 445 to 472 crashes, while 'Ran off road - left' grew in count from 236 to 334.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal1,485 (26%)↓-8.9%prior 1,630
Followed too close472 (8.3%)↑6.1%prior 445
Driving too fast for conditions388 (6.8%)↑142.5%prior 160
Ran off road - left334 (5.9%)↑41.5%prior 236
FTYROW: From stop sign262 (4.6%)↑9.2%prior 240
Other (explain in narrative): Other253 (4.4%)↑12.4%prior 225
Lost Control205 (3.6%)↑15.2%prior 178
FTYROW: Making left turn193 (3.4%)↓-5.9%prior 205
Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction175 (3.1%)↑9.4%prior 160
Ran Stop Sign152 (2.7%)↑18.8%prior 128

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The most notable shift in crash conditions was related to weather and road surface. Crashes occurring in snowy weather increased from 72 in November 2024 to 464 in November 2025, and collisions on snowy road surfaces rose from 44 to 543. Conversely, crashes during rainy conditions decreased from 524 to 236, and incidents on wet roads fell from 834 to 521. The distribution of crashes by lighting conditions remained relatively consistent, with most incidents in both periods occurring during daylight hours.

Weather

Clear2,706 (61.7%)
↑14.3%prior 2,367
Cloudy712 (16.2%)
↓-7.5%prior 770
Snow464 (10.6%)
↑544.4%prior 72
Rain236 (5.4%)
↓-55.0%prior 524
Blowing Snow94 (2.1%)
↑754.5%prior 11
Fog, smoke, smog88 (2.0%)
↑114.6%prior 41
Freezing rain/drizzle49 (1.1%)
↑75.0%prior 28
Severe Winds29 (0.7%)
↑93.3%prior 15
Other (explain in narrative)5 (0.1%)
↓-16.7%prior 6
Sleet, hail3 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,363 (53.4%)
↑16.1%prior 2,036
Dark - roadway lighted1,055 (23.9%)
↑11.8%prior 944
Dark - roadway not lighted682 (15.4%)
↑14.0%prior 598
Dusk168 (3.8%)
↑12.0%prior 150
Dawn102 (2.3%)
↓-1.9%prior 104
Dark - unknown roadway lighting53 (1.2%)
↓-17.2%prior 64

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry3,086 (70.2%)
↑9.5%prior 2,817
Snow543 (12.4%)
↑1134.1%prior 44
Wet521 (11.9%)
↓-37.5%prior 834
Ice/frost144 (3.3%)
↑87.0%prior 77
Gravel66 (1.5%)
↑10.0%prior 60
Slush27 (0.6%)
Mud, dirt5 (0.1%)
↓-37.5%prior 8
Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The top three vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with Ford, Chevrolet (listed as 'CHEV'), and Toyota (listed as 'TOYT') leading in both November 2024 and 2025. The number of Fords involved in crashes increased from 1,302 to 1,435, while Chevrolets rose from 1,155 to 1,256. Demographically, the age distribution of persons involved in crashes showed increases across most groups, consistent with the overall rise in collisions. The 35-44 age group saw the largest increase in raw count, from 1,322 individuals to 1,445.

Top Vehicle Makes (9,087 vehicles)

1
FORD1,435 (15.8%)
↑10.2%prior 1,302
2
CHEV1,256 (13.8%)
↑8.7%prior 1,155
3
TOYT458 (5%)
↑8.0%prior 424
4
JEEP434 (4.8%)
↑3.6%prior 419
5
HOND404 (4.4%)
↑7.2%prior 377
6
CHEVROLET366 (4%)
↓-13.5%prior 423
7
GMC352 (3.9%)
↑13.9%prior 309
8
NISS333 (3.7%)
↑17.3%prior 284
9
KIA310 (3.4%)
↑31.9%prior 235
10
DODG295 (3.2%)
↓-7.5%prior 319

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · Vehicle unit records

950 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (5,676 persons with recorded sex)

Male3,415 (60.2%)
↑19.8%prior 2,850
Female2,261 (39.8%)
↑6.5%prior 2,124

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30 · 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: 2025-11-01 through 2025-11-30
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-11-01 through 2025-11-30 (30 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 5,703
  • Total persons involved: 9,422
  • Total vehicles involved: 9,087

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: November 2025." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-11-01 to 2025-11-30. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/november-2025-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

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