ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2020
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/2020-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
309 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2020
In Clayton County, total vehicle crashes increased by 4.4%, from 296 in 2019 to 309 in 2020. While total injuries decreased slightly, the most significant year-over-year change was a doubling of traffic fatalities, which rose from two in 2019 to four in 2020. Crashes involving driving under the influence (DUI) also more than doubled from 8 to 17.
309
▲ 4.4%was 296
Total Crash Events
4
▲ 100.0%was 2
Persons Killed
76
▼ -7.3%was 82
Persons Injured
4
▲ 100.0%was 2
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (4) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (4) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic crashes in Clayton County trended slightly upward in 2020, with a 4.4% increase from 296 to 309 incidents compared to the previous year. While the number of people injured decreased by 7.3% from 82 to 76, the number of fatalities doubled from two to four, indicating a rise in the severity of crashes despite the modest increase in total volume.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
4
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
71
Motorists Injured
3
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes shifted between the two periods. In 2020, Friday was the peak day for crashes with 60 incidents, a change from 2019 when Monday was the peak day with 51 crashes. The peak hour for collisions also shifted slightly earlier, from 7 p.m. in 2019 (28 crashes) to 6 p.m. in 2020 (24 crashes).
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes worsened year-over-year. Fatal crashes doubled from two incidents in 2019 to four in 2020, with the fatal crash rate increasing from 0.7% to 1.3% of all crashes. Similarly, serious injury crashes increased from 7 to 13. In contrast, crashes resulting in possible injuries decreased from 24 to 19, and the proportion of no-injury crashes remained stable at approximately 80% for both years.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · 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 from 123 in 2019 to 145 in 2020. A significant shift occurred in the second-ranked factor; 'Driving too fast for conditions' dropped from 30 crashes in 2019 to just 12 in 2020, a 60% decrease in count. Meanwhile, 'Ran off road - left' and 'Lost Control' became the second most common factors in 2020, each cited in 19 crashes.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
There was a significant shift in the reported road surface conditions for crashes year-over-year. The number of crashes on dry roads increased from 90 in 2019 to 123 in 2020. Conversely, crashes on roads with ice or frost dropped from 27 to 10. The proportion of crashes occurring in daylight (from 117 to 120) and clear weather (from 106 to 127) also saw increases, suggesting that adverse conditions were less of a factor in 2020 compared to 2019.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top vehicle makes involved in crashes, primarily Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge, remained consistent in rank and volume between 2019 and 2020. However, the demographics of persons involved in crashes showed notable changes. The share of people in the 16-20 age group increased from 10.3% to 13.2%, and the 45-54 age group grew from 11.6% to 15.4%. In contrast, the share of people aged 26-34 and 65+ decreased from 17.8% to 12.9% and 15.3% to 10.7%, respectively.
Top Vehicle Makes (393 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
40 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (371 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · 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: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31 (366 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 309
- Total persons involved: 628
- Total vehicles involved: 393
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: 2020." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2020-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: 2020-01-01 – 2020-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved