ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · OCTOBER 2016
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/october-2016-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
5,189 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
OCTOBER 2016
In October 2016, Iowa recorded 5,189 vehicle crashes, a marginal 0.6% increase from the 5,159 crashes reported in October 2015. While the total number of crashes remained relatively stable, the number of fatalities rose sharply. There were 39 fatalities in October 2016, a 62.5% increase from the 24 fatalities recorded in the same month the previous year.
5,189
▲ 0.6%was 5,159
Total Crash Events
39
▲ 62.5%was 24
Persons Killed
1,735
▼ -2.7%was 1,783
Persons Injured
36
▲ 56.5%was 23
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (39) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (36) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Year-over-year, the total number of crashes in Iowa remained nearly stable, increasing by just 30 incidents from 5,159 in October 2015 to 5,189 in October 2016. However, the severity of these crashes worsened significantly, with total fatalities climbing by 62.5% from 24 to 39. Conversely, the total number of injuries saw a slight decrease of 2.7%, from 1,783 to 1,735.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
36
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
52
Pedestrians Injured
37
Cyclists Injured
1,644
Motorists Injured
2
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · 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 some shifts between October 2015 and October 2016. The day with the highest number of crashes moved from Friday (1,071 crashes) in the prior year to Monday (835 crashes) in the current period. The peak hour for crashes remained in the late afternoon, shifting slightly from the 3 p.m. hour (402 crashes) in 2015 to the 4 p.m. hour (411 crashes) in 2016.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes were stable, the severity distribution worsened in October 2016 compared to the prior year. The number of fatal crashes increased from 23 to 36, raising the fatal crash rate from 0.45% to 0.69% of all crashes. The count of serious injury crashes remained unchanged at 129. Crashes resulting in minor injuries increased from 427 to 469, while those with possible injuries decreased from 878 to 819.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 36 fatal crash events resulted in 39 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with collisions involving an 'Animal' being the top factor in both October 2016 (1,028 crashes) and October 2015 (1,029 crashes). 'Followed too close' remained the second most common factor, but its count increased by 10.2% from 528 to 582 crashes. 'Failure to Yield Right of Way from a stop sign' held the third position with a slight increase from 293 to 301 incidents. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Ran off road - left' saw a 21.4% increase in count, rising from 201 to 244.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crash conditions in October 2016 were broadly similar to the previous year, with most incidents occurring in clear weather and during daylight hours. Crashes during rainy conditions decreased substantially, from 435 incidents in October 2015 to 203 in October 2016, corresponding with a drop in crashes on wet road surfaces from 564 to 419. The proportion of crashes occurring in daylight decreased slightly from 57.5% to 55.4% of all incidents. The vast majority of crashes in both periods occurred on dry roads (71.4% in 2015 and 74.0% in 2016).
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes were consistent year-over-year, with Chevrolet and Ford being the two most frequently involved makes in both October 2015 and October 2016. The top rankings for other common makes like Toyota and Dodge also showed little change. Similarly, the age distribution of persons involved in crashes remained stable, with no significant shifts in the proportions of any age group compared to the previous year.
Top Vehicle Makes (8,747 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · Vehicle unit records
967 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (6,348 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31 · 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: 2016-10-01 through 2016-10-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2016-10-01 through 2016-10-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 5,189
- Total persons involved: 9,209
- Total vehicles involved: 8,747
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: October 2016." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-10-01 to 2016-10-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/october-2016-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: 2016-10-01 – 2016-10-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved