ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2018
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/2018-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
187 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2018
In Humboldt County, total traffic crashes increased by 15.4% from 162 in 2017 to 187 in 2018. During this period, the number of fatalities doubled from 2 to 4. The most significant year-over-year change was the doubling of individuals aged 16-20 involved in crashes, from 33 in 2017 to 66 in 2018.
187
▲ 15.4%was 162
Total Crash Events
4
▲ 100.0%was 2
Persons Killed
57
▼ -12.3%was 65
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 · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic safety trends in Humboldt County showed an increase in crash frequency and severity from 2017 to 2018. The total number of crashes rose by 15.4%, from 162 to 187 incidents. While total injuries saw a 12.3% decrease from 65 to 57, the number of fatalities doubled from 2 to 4.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
3
Motorists Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
55
Motorists Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · 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 2018, the peak day for crashes was Wednesday with 39 incidents, a change from 2017 when Friday was the peak day with 34 crashes. The peak hour also changed, moving from 10 p.m. (15 crashes) in 2017 to multiple peak times in 2018, where 11 a.m., 5 p.m., and 9 p.m. each recorded 16 crashes.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The severity of crashes increased from 2017 to 2018. Fatal crashes doubled from 2 to 4, and the fatal crash rate grew from 1.2% to 2.1% of all incidents. Conversely, the number of serious injury crashes decreased from 7 to 4. Crashes resulting in no injuries accounted for 74.9% of the total in 2018, a slight increase from 73.5% in 2017.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions involving animals remained the leading contributing factor in both years, increasing from 37 crashes in 2017 to 45 in 2018. A significant year-over-year change was observed in crashes attributed to failure to yield from a stop sign, which more than doubled from 5 incidents in 2017 to 11 in 2018. Conversely, crashes involving a vehicle running off a straight road were halved, decreasing from 16 in 2017 to 8 in 2018.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes in daylight conditions saw a notable increase, rising from 79 incidents (48.8% of total) in 2017 to 109 incidents (58.3% of total) in 2018. The number of crashes on adverse road surfaces like ice, snow, or wet pavement remained identical at 49 incidents in both years. Similarly, crashes during adverse weather conditions (snow, rain, freezing rain) were stable, with 22 incidents in 2017 and 24 in 2018.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The demographic profile of individuals involved in crashes shifted significantly year-over-year. The number of persons in the 16-20 age group doubled from 33 in 2017 to 66 in 2018, making it the most frequently involved age group. Regarding vehicle makes, Chevrolet and Ford vehicles were the most common in crashes for both years. The number of Chevrolets (including those coded as CHEV and CHEVROLET) involved increased from 56 to 64, and Fords increased from 42 to 45.
Top Vehicle Makes (276 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
13 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (207 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31 · 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: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2018-01-01 through 2018-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 187
- Total persons involved: 329
- Total vehicles involved: 276
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: 2018." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2018-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2018-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: 2018-01-01 – 2018-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved