ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2024
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/2024-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
262 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2024
In 2024, Tama County recorded 262 total crashes, a 16% decrease from the 312 crashes reported in 2023. Despite the overall decline in collisions, the most notable year-over-year change was the emergence of fatal crashes, with two incidents resulting in two fatalities in 2024, compared to zero in the prior year.
262
▼ -16.0%was 312
Total Crash Events
2
Persons Killed
67
▲ 3.1%was 65
Persons Injured
2
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (2) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (2) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crashes in Tama County showed a downward trend, decreasing by 16% from 312 in 2023 to 262 in 2024. While the total number of crashes fell, the number of people injured remained relatively stable, increasing slightly from 65 to 67. The number of fatalities rose from zero in 2023 to two in 2024.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
2
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
65
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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 the two periods. While Friday remained a peak day for crashes, its total count decreased from 52 in 2023 to 42 in 2024, a total equaled by Saturday in the current period. The evening peak hour of 6 PM saw a reduction in crashes from 29 to 21 year-over-year. A notable change was the emergence of a morning peak at 6 AM in 2024, with 21 crashes, compared to 13 in the same hour the previous year.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Crash severity increased in 2024, with two fatal crashes recorded compared to none in 2023. The proportion of crashes resulting in minor injuries more than doubled, increasing from 5.1% (16 crashes) in 2023 to 11.5% (30 crashes) in 2024. While the number of serious injury crashes remained constant at eight, their share of total crashes increased from 2.6% to 3.1% due to the lower overall crash volume. Consequently, the proportion of no-injury crashes decreased from 83.3% to 77.5% of all incidents.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions with animals remained the leading contributing factor in both periods, though the count of such incidents decreased by 24%, from 153 crashes in 2023 to 116 in 2024. 'Lost Control' was another consistent top factor, with its count holding steady at 18 crashes in 2024 compared to 17 in the prior year. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Ran Stop Sign' saw a significant reduction, falling from 11 incidents in 2023 to just 3 in 2024. 'Driving too fast for conditions' also declined from 12 crashes to 9.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The conditions under which crashes occurred remained broadly similar year-over-year. Crashes in daylight decreased in count from 106 to 92, while incidents in dark, unlighted conditions were unchanged at 38 for both periods. The proportion of crashes occurring in clear weather increased from 60.7% in 2023 to 67.3% in 2024, based on crashes where weather was documented. There was a slight increase in the share of crashes reported during adverse weather conditions like snow or rain, from 10.7% to 14.4% of incidents.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
An analysis of vehicles involved shows that Ford (58 vehicles) and Chevrolet (54 vehicles) were the most common makes in 2024 crashes, a reversal from 2023 when Chevrolet (78) and Ford (75) were the top two. The total number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased from 406 to 329. Consistent with this decline, the number of persons involved in crashes fell across most age groups, with a notable reduction in the 26-34 age bracket, from 116 individuals in 2023 to 55 in 2024.
Top Vehicle Makes (329 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
16 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (148 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-12-31 (366 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 262
- Total persons involved: 344
- Total vehicles involved: 329
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: 2024." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2024-annual-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: 2024-01-01 – 2024-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved