Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,872 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2025

All metrics benchmarked against2024

In Dubuque County, total vehicle crashes decreased by 5.5% from 1,981 in 2024 to 1,872 in 2025. This downward trend was accompanied by a notable reduction in traffic fatalities, which fell from 11 in the prior period to 6 in the current period. While most crash metrics saw a decrease, incidents attributed to 'Followed too close' increased by 33.3% year-over-year.

1,872

▼ -5.5%was 1,981

Total Crash Events

6

▼ -45.5%was 11

Persons Killed

532

▼ -4.7%was 558

Persons Injured

6

▼ -40.0%was 10

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (6) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic safety trends in Dubuque County improved year-over-year. Total crashes declined from 1,981 to 1,872, a 5.5% decrease. Similarly, the number of people injured fell by 4.7%, from 558 to 532, indicating a general reduction in both the frequency and severity of collisions.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1↑100.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 1↓-100.0%

4

Motorists Killed

Prior: 9↓-55.6%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

26

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 21↑23.8%

20

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 14↑42.9%

484

Motorists Injured

Prior: 520↓-6.9%

2

Other Injured

Prior: 3↓-33.3%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained largely consistent between the two periods. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both 2025 and 2024, with an identical count of 334 incidents. The afternoon commute window continued to be the riskiest time, though the specific peak hour shifted slightly from 3 p.m. in the prior year (175 crashes) to 2 p.m. in the current year (156 crashes).

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes saw a positive shift year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes decreased from 10 to 6, and the fatal crash rate dropped from 0.5% to 0.3% of all incidents. Crashes resulting in serious injuries also declined from 27 to 20. Conversely, crashes classified with 'Possible Injury' increased from 274 to 288, making up a larger share of the total at 15.4% compared to 13.8% in the prior year.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal6fatal crashes0.3%
↓-40.0%prior 10
Serious Injury20serious injury crashes1.1%
↓-25.9%prior 27
Minor Injury138minor injury crashes7.4%
↓-22.0%prior 177
Possible Injury288possible injury crashes15.4%
↑5.1%prior 274
No Injury1,420no injury crashes75.9%
↓-4.9%prior 1,493

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The primary contributing factors for crashes showed some shifts between periods. 'Ran off road - left' remained the top factor despite its count decreasing from 380 to 355. Collisions involving animals held steady as the second-leading cause with 260 incidents, up from 258. Notably, crashes due to 'Followed too close' increased by 33.3% in count, from 99 to 132, making it the third most common factor in the current period. In contrast, 'Lost Control' incidents decreased by 33.3% in count, from 102 to 68.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Ran off road - left355 (19%)↓-6.6%prior 380
Animal260 (13.9%)↑0.8%prior 258
Followed too close132 (7.1%)↑33.3%prior 99
Ran Traffic Signal114 (6.1%)↑10.7%prior 103
Ran Stop Sign82 (4.4%)↓-10.9%prior 92
FTYROW: From stop sign73 (3.9%)↓-27.0%prior 100
Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction70 (3.7%)↓-2.8%prior 72
Other (explain in narrative): No improper action69 (3.7%)→0.0%prior 69
Lost Control68 (3.6%)↓-33.3%prior 102
Made improper turn58 (3.1%)↓-12.1%prior 66

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crash conditions were largely similar year-over-year, with the majority of incidents in both periods occurring in daylight (1,210 vs. 1,264), on dry roads (1,302 vs. 1,348), and in clear weather (1,095 vs. 1,189). Crashes under adverse conditions generally decreased. Incidents during rain fell from 114 to 66, and crashes on wet roads decreased from 217 to 177. Combined crashes on snow, ice, or slush surfaces also saw a reduction from 173 to 152.

Weather

Clear1,095 (67.2%)
↓-7.9%prior 1,189
Cloudy344 (21.1%)
↑12.4%prior 306
Snow92 (5.6%)
↑17.9%prior 78
Rain66 (4.0%)
↓-42.1%prior 114
Freezing rain/drizzle14 (0.9%)
↓-36.4%prior 22
Blowing Snow9 (0.6%)
↓-18.2%prior 11
Fog, smoke, smog5 (0.3%)
↓-72.2%prior 18
Severe Winds3 (0.2%)
Other (explain in narrative)2 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight1,210 (73.6%)
↓-4.3%prior 1,264
Dark - roadway lighted255 (15.5%)
↓-8.6%prior 279
Dark - roadway not lighted88 (5.4%)
↓-33.3%prior 132
Dusk47 (2.9%)
↑9.3%prior 43
Dawn31 (1.9%)
↑63.2%prior 19
Dark - unknown roadway lighting12 (0.7%)
↓-20.0%prior 15

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry1,302 (79.8%)
↓-3.4%prior 1,348
Wet177 (10.9%)
↓-18.4%prior 217
Snow104 (6.4%)
↑5.1%prior 99
Ice/frost29 (1.8%)
↓-55.4%prior 65
Slush19 (1.2%)
↑111.1%prior 9

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford (462 vs. 456) and Chevrolet (418 vs. 439) being the most common in both periods. The age distribution of individuals involved in crashes reflected the overall downward trend, with fewer persons from most age groups involved. For instance, the 26-34 age group saw a decrease from 518 to 478 persons involved, and the 65+ group decreased from 521 to 498, with no significant shifts in the proportional representation of any single age bracket.

Top Vehicle Makes (3,282 vehicles)

1
FORD462 (14.1%)
↑1.3%prior 456
2
CHEV418 (12.7%)
↓-4.8%prior 439
3
CHEVROLET208 (6.3%)
↓-4.6%prior 218
4
TOYT198 (6%)
↑9.4%prior 181
5
JEEP193 (5.9%)
↓-3.5%prior 200
6
HOND155 (4.7%)
↓-12.9%prior 178
7
KIA134 (4.1%)
↓-12.4%prior 153
8
GMC131 (4%)
↓-5.8%prior 139
9
NISS111 (3.4%)
↑2.8%prior 108
10
DODG107 (3.3%)
↑1.9%prior 105

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (2,136 persons with recorded sex)

Male1,182 (55.3%)
↓-3.1%prior 1,220
Female954 (44.7%)
↓-4.9%prior 1,003

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 · 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: 2025-01-01 through 2025-12-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-01-01 through 2025-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,872
  • Total persons involved: 3,422
  • Total vehicles involved: 3,282

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: 2025." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2025-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

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Dubuque County, IA Crash Report — 2025 | ThatCarHitMe.com