ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2021
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/2021-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
207 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2021
In 2021, Cherokee County recorded 207 total crashes, a 21.1% increase from the 171 crashes in 2020. Despite the rise in collisions, the year saw a significant reduction in severe outcomes. Fatalities dropped from four to one, and total injuries decreased from 68 to 49 compared to the previous year.
207
▲ 21.1%was 171
Total Crash Events
1
▼ -75.0%was 4
Persons Killed
49
▼ -27.9%was 68
Persons Injured
1
▼ -75.0%was 4
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (1) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall crash trends in Cherokee County showed a notable increase in 2021. Total collisions rose by 21.1%, from 171 in 2020 to 207 in 2021. However, this increase in crash volume was accompanied by a positive trend in crash severity, as both fatalities (from 4 to 1) and injuries (from 68 to 49) saw a year-over-year decline.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Motorists Killed
49
Motorists Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes shifted significantly between the two periods. In 2021, Friday was the peak day for crashes with 37 incidents, a change from 2020 when Wednesday saw the most crashes (32). A similar shift occurred in the peak hour of collisions, moving from the morning commute at 7 a.m. in 2020 (17 crashes) to the evening commute at 5 p.m. in 2021 (23 crashes).
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes increased, the severity of those crashes decreased in 2021. The number of fatal crashes fell from four to one, and total fatalities dropped from four to one. The proportion of crashes resulting in any level of injury or death decreased from 33.3% in 2020 to 20.3% in 2021, while no-injury crashes increased from 114 to 165.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions with animals remained the leading contributing factor in both years, with the count of such incidents increasing by 48.9% from 47 in 2020 to 70 in 2021. "Followed too close" emerged as a more prominent factor, with its count more than doubling from 7 to 16 crashes. Conversely, "Driving too fast for conditions," a top factor in 2020 with 11 crashes, was not a top-five factor in 2021. Failure to yield from a stop sign also saw a significant increase, rising from 4 crashes in 2020 to 13 in 2021.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The increase in total crashes in 2021 occurred primarily under ideal driving conditions. Crashes on dry roads rose from 89 to 108, and those in daylight increased from 88 to 104. In contrast, the number of crashes happening in adverse conditions remained stable year-over-year; incidents in adverse weather were 19 in 2021 versus 20 in 2020, and crashes on adverse road surfaces were 31 in 2021 versus 32 in 2020.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The most common vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford (49 vehicles), Chevrolet (44), and GMC (32) leading in 2021, reflecting a general increase in counts from 2020. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes showed a notable shift. The 35-44 age group saw its involvement increase, accounting for 17.7% of persons in 2021 compared to 13.6% in 2020. Conversely, the share for the 26-34 age group decreased from 17.0% in 2020 to 13.8% in 2021.
Top Vehicle Makes (297 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
29 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (240 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · 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: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 207
- Total persons involved: 378
- Total vehicles involved: 297
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: 2021." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2021-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: 2021-01-01 – 2021-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved