ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2017
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/2017-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
261 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2017
In Washington County, total traffic crashes increased by 15.0% from 227 in 2016 to 261 in 2017. While the number of fatalities remained unchanged at three, the total number of injuries decreased. The most notable year-over-year shift was a 45% increase in crashes where an animal was a contributing factor, rising from 31 to 45 incidents.
261
▲ 15.0%was 227
Total Crash Events
3
Persons Killed
107
▼ -19.5%was 133
Persons Injured
3
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (3) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, traffic crashes in Washington County showed an upward trend, increasing from 227 in 2016 to 261 in 2017, a 15.0% rise. Despite this increase in collisions, total injuries fell by 19.5% from 133 to 107, and fatalities held steady at three individuals in both years.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
3
Cyclists Injured
102
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The temporal patterns of crashes shifted year-over-year. In 2017, the peak day for crashes was Friday with 42 incidents, a change from 2016 when Tuesday was the peak day with 44 incidents. Similarly, the peak hour for collisions moved earlier in the afternoon, from the 3 p.m. hour in 2016 (20 crashes) to the 2 p.m. hour in 2017 (29 crashes).
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While the number of fatal crashes was stable at three for both periods, the severity distribution of all crashes changed. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injury increased from 57.7% (131 incidents) in 2016 to 67.8% (177 incidents) in 2017. Correspondingly, the share of injury-related crashes decreased, with serious injury crashes falling from 15 to 9 and possible injury crashes dropping from 51 to 43.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor in 2017 was 'Animal', involved in 45 crashes, an increase from 31 crashes in 2016 when it was also the top factor. 'FTYROW: From stop sign' incidents increased from 21 to 30, moving from the third-ranked factor in 2016 to the second-ranked in 2017. Conversely, crashes attributed to 'Lost Control' decreased from 24 incidents in 2016 to 17 in 2017.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes on dry road surfaces remained the most common scenario, accounting for 193 of 261 crashes in 2017 compared to 169 of 227 in 2016. However, incidents under adverse conditions saw an increase; crashes on wet roads doubled from 12 to 24, and collisions in snowy conditions increased from 7 to 13. Crashes in daylight were the most frequent in both years, representing 64.8% of crashes in 2017 and 61.2% in 2016.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
Ford and Chevrolet vehicles were the most common makes involved in crashes during both periods, with counts increasing for both from 2016 to 2017. Analyzing the demographics of persons involved, the 16-20 age group remained the most represented, increasing from 86 individuals in 2016 to 93 in 2017. A significant change was observed in the 65+ age group, which saw its involvement increase from 49 persons in 2016 to 74 in 2017.
Top Vehicle Makes (428 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
31 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (352 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31 · 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: 2017-01-01 through 2017-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2017-01-01 through 2017-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 261
- Total persons involved: 505
- Total vehicles involved: 428
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: 2017." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2017-01-01 to 2017-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2017-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: 2017-01-01 – 2017-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved