Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

4,119 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
SEPTEMBER 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstSeptember 2024

In September 2025, there were 4,119 crashes recorded across Iowa, representing a 7.2% decrease from the 4,440 crashes documented in September 2024. This overall improvement in safety metrics was highlighted by a significant 41% year-over-year reduction in traffic fatalities, which fell from 39 to 23. While total crashes and injuries declined, the distribution of contributing factors and conditions showed some shifts.

4,119

▼ -7.2%was 4,440

Total Crash Events

▼ -41.0%was 39

Persons Killed

1,436

▼ -8.9%was 1,576

Persons Injured

▼ -40.0%was 35

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (23) 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 · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Traffic safety metrics improved in September 2025 compared to the same month in the prior year, with total crashes falling by 7.2% from 4,440 to 4,119. This downward trend was also reflected in casualties, as total injuries decreased by 8.9% from 1,576 to 1,436. Most notably, total fatalities experienced a substantial 41% reduction, dropping from 39 to 23 year-over-year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 1→0.0%

Motorists Killed

Prior: 38↓-47.4%

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 40→0.0%

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 42↑47.6%

1,314

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,485↓-11.5%

Other Injured

Prior: 9↑122.2%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The timing of crashes showed some shifts between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Monday (743 incidents) in September 2024 to Tuesday (691 incidents) in September 2025. However, the peak hour for collisions remained consistent at 3 p.m. in both years, though the volume of crashes during this hour increased from 360 to 405.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crash severity decreased year-over-year, with the share of fatal crashes dropping from 0.8% of all incidents in September 2024 to 0.5% in September 2025. The absolute count of fatal crashes fell from 35 to 21. Crashes resulting in serious injuries also saw a proportional decrease, from 2.8% to 2.4% of the total. Consequently, the share of crashes with no reported injuries increased from 68.7% to 70.0%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 21 fatal crash events resulted in 23 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal21fatal crashes0.5%

↓-40.0%prior 35

Serious Injury100serious injury crashes2.4%

↓-20.6%prior 126

Minor Injury460minor injury crashes11.2%

↓-11.5%prior 520

Possible Injury656possible injury crashes15.9%

↓-7.5%prior 709

No Injury2,882no injury crashes70%

↓-5.5%prior 3,050

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent, with 'Followed too close' and 'Animal' as the top two causes in both periods. The count for 'Followed too close' incidents decreased from 525 to 487, while crashes involving an 'Animal' fell from 508 to 396. Despite the overall drop in crashes, some factors saw an increase in count, including 'Operating vehicle in an reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner' (from 137 to 147) and 'Made improper turn' (from 109 to 125).

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Followed too close487 (11.8%)↓-7.2%prior 525

Animal396 (9.6%)↓-22.0%prior 508

FTYROW: From stop sign252 (6.1%)↓-1.6%prior 256

Ran off road - left217 (5.3%)↓-11.4%prior 245

FTYROW: Making left turn212 (5.1%)→0.0%prior 212

Other (explain in narrative): Other211 (5.1%)↓-8.3%prior 230

Lost Control183 (4.4%)↓-5.7%prior 194

Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction175 (4.2%)→0.0%prior 175

Ran Stop Sign155 (3.8%)↓-9.4%prior 171

Ran Traffic Signal153 (3.7%)↓-8.4%prior 167

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

While most crashes in both periods occurred in clear weather on dry roads, the proportion of incidents during adverse conditions increased year-over-year. The share of crashes in rainy conditions rose from 1.0% to 2.4% of the total, and those on wet road surfaces increased from 1.7% to 4.3%. The proportion of crashes occurring in daylight conditions increased slightly from 67.7% in the prior period to 70.2% in the current period.

Weather

Clear3,198 (85.3%)

↓-12.2%prior 3,644

Cloudy420 (11.2%)

↑59.7%prior 263

Rain100 (2.7%)

↑132.6%prior 43

Fog, smoke, smog27 (0.7%)

↑200.0%prior 9

Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)

↓-40.0%prior 5

Freezing rain/drizzle3 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,890 (76.6%)

↓-3.9%prior 3,008

Dark - roadway lighted410 (10.9%)

↓-6.4%prior 438

Dark - roadway not lighted282 (7.5%)

↓-15.1%prior 332

Dusk84 (2.2%)

↓-21.5%prior 107

Dawn79 (2.1%)

↓-13.2%prior 91

Dark - unknown roadway lighting29 (0.8%)

↑26.1%prior 23

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry3,480 (92.6%)

↓-8.5%prior 3,805

Wet178 (4.7%)

↑131.2%prior 77

Gravel94 (2.5%)

→0.0%prior 94

Other (explain in narrative)2 (0.1%)

Mud, dirt2 (0.1%)

Sand1 (0.0%)

Oil1 (0.0%)

Water (standing or moving)1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The top vehicle makes involved in crashes, Ford and Chevrolet, maintained their top rankings in both periods, though the number of vehicles from each make decreased. Ford-made vehicles involved in crashes dropped from 1,149 to 1,093. Analysis of persons involved shows a notable decrease in the 26-34 age group, which fell from 1,249 individuals in the prior year to 1,083 in the current period. Conversely, the 16-20 age group saw a slight increase in involvement from 1,014 to 1,040 persons.

Top Vehicle Makes (7,292 vehicles)

FORD1,093 (15%)

↓-4.9%prior 1,149

CHEV1,006 (13.8%)

↓-7.7%prior 1,090

TOYT404 (5.5%)

↑14.8%prior 352

HOND359 (4.9%)

↑5.9%prior 339

JEEP336 (4.6%)

↓-4.0%prior 350

CHEVROLET331 (4.5%)

↓-21.0%prior 419

NISS267 (3.7%)

↓-7.9%prior 290

GMC264 (3.6%)

↑2.3%prior 258

DODG250 (3.4%)

↑2.5%prior 244

KIA227 (3.1%)

↑10.2%prior 206

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (4,921 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,746 (55.8%)

↓-5.0%prior 2,892

Female2,175 (44.2%)

↑1.3%prior 2,148

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · 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: 2025-09-01 through 2025-09-30
Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2025-09-01 through 2025-09-30 (30 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 4,119
Total persons involved: 7,631
Total vehicles involved: 7,292

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: September 2025." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/september-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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4,119 CRASHES INIOWA, IASEPTEMBER 2025