Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

3,383 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2016

All metrics benchmarked against2015

In Linn County, total crashes remained relatively stable, increasing by 1.1% from 3,347 in 2015 to 3,383 in 2016. While the overall crash volume saw little change, the number of fatalities experienced a significant year-over-year increase. The most notable shift was the number of traffic fatalities, which rose from 5 in 2015 to 20 in 2016.

3,383

▲ 1.1%was 3,347

Total Crash Events

20

▲ 300.0%was 5

Persons Killed

1,110

▼ -5.0%was 1,168

Persons Injured

17

▲ 240.0%was 5

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (20) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (17) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash volume in Linn County showed a stable trend with a slight increase of 1.1% from 2015 to 2016, representing an additional 36 incidents. In contrast to the rise in total crashes, the number of people injured decreased by 5.0%, from 1,168 to 1,110. However, the number of fatalities saw a substantial increase, rising from 5 in 2015 to 20 in 2016.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

19

Motorists Killed

Prior: 5↑280.0%

30

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 25↑20.0%

22

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 24↓-8.3%

1,058

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,117↓-5.3%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes in Linn County shifted between 2015 and 2016. The peak day for crashes moved from Tuesday (570 crashes) in 2015 to Friday (583 crashes) in 2016. Similarly, the peak hour for collisions shifted an hour earlier, from the 5 p.m. hour in 2015 (358 crashes) to the 4 p.m. hour in 2016 (313 crashes). The end of the year, particularly November and December, remained the period with the highest crash volumes in both years.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes worsened in 2016 compared to the prior year, primarily driven by a rise in fatal incidents. The number of fatal crashes increased from 5 in 2015 to 17 in 2016, causing the fatal crash share of all crashes to rise from 0.1% to 0.5%. Conversely, the proportion of crashes resulting in possible injuries decreased from 16.8% to 15.4%, and the share of crashes with no injuries increased from 72.6% in 2015 to 73.8% in 2016.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 17 fatal crash events resulted in 20 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal17fatal crashes0.5%
↑240.0%prior 5
Serious Injury47serious injury crashes1.4%
↓-9.6%prior 52
Minor Injury301minor injury crashes8.9%
↑1.0%prior 298
Possible Injury522possible injury crashes15.4%
↓-7.1%prior 562
No Injury2,496no injury crashes73.8%
↑2.7%prior 2,430

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factors for crashes in Linn County remained consistent year-over-year, with 'Followed too close' (366 crashes), 'Animal' (276 crashes), and 'Ran off road - left' (239 crashes) as the top three in 2016. The count for 'Followed too close' incidents increased by 13 from 353 in 2015. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Ran Traffic Signal' increased in count by 16.4%, from 177 in 2015 to 206 in 2016, while crashes involving 'Failure to Yield Right of Way: Making left turn' decreased by 9.3% from 227 to 206.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Followed too close366 (10.8%)↑3.7%prior 353
Animal276 (8.2%)↑4.2%prior 265
Ran off road - left239 (7.1%)↑3.9%prior 230
FTYROW: From stop sign226 (6.7%)↑14.7%prior 197
Ran Traffic Signal206 (6.1%)↑16.4%prior 177
FTYROW: Making left turn206 (6.1%)↓-9.3%prior 227
Other (explain in narrative): Other163 (4.8%)↓-15.5%prior 193
Driving too fast for conditions135 (4%)↑5.5%prior 128
Lost Control116 (3.4%)↓-9.4%prior 128
Ran Stop Sign112 (3.3%)↑14.3%prior 98

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The majority of crashes in both periods occurred in clear weather and daylight on dry roads. In 2016, the proportion of crashes on dry road surfaces increased to 71.8% from 65.9% in 2015. Correspondingly, crashes on wet roads decreased from representing 16.4% of the total in 2015 to 13.2% in 2016. The share of collisions occurring during daylight hours remained stable at approximately 67% for both years.

Weather

Clear1,930 (61.5%)
↑4.8%prior 1,842
Cloudy860 (27.4%)
↑13.5%prior 758
Rain183 (5.8%)
↓-42.8%prior 320
Snow91 (2.9%)
↓-1.1%prior 92
Freezing rain/drizzle43 (1.4%)
↑30.3%prior 33
Blowing Snow12 (0.4%)
↓-33.3%prior 18
Fog, smoke, smog9 (0.3%)
↓-50.0%prior 18
Severe Winds6 (0.2%)
→0.0%prior 6
Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)
Blowing sand, soil, dirt1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,280 (72.6%)
↑1.3%prior 2,251
Dark - roadway lighted509 (16.2%)
↑1.0%prior 504
Dark - roadway not lighted189 (6.0%)
↑4.4%prior 181
Dusk117 (3.7%)
↑13.6%prior 103
Dawn41 (1.3%)
↓-18.0%prior 50
Dark - unknown roadway lighting4 (0.1%)
↓-50.0%prior 8

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry2,430 (77.4%)
↑10.2%prior 2,205
Wet448 (14.3%)
↓-18.4%prior 549
Snow112 (3.6%)
↓-32.5%prior 166
Ice/frost87 (2.8%)
↓-1.1%prior 88
Slush28 (0.9%)
↓-3.4%prior 29
Gravel20 (0.6%)
↓-41.2%prior 34
Sand9 (0.3%)
↓-10.0%prior 10
Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)
Mud, dirt1 (0.0%)
↓-83.3%prior 6

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The top vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota being the most frequent in both 2015 and 2016. The number of Fords involved in crashes increased from 1,008 to 1,046. An analysis of persons involved shows a decrease across most age groups from the prior year, with the largest reductions seen in the 26-34 age group (from 1,261 to 1,151) and the 16-20 age group (from 1,079 to 970). In contrast, the number of individuals aged 65 and older involved in crashes saw a slight increase from 774 to 781.

Top Vehicle Makes (6,329 vehicles)

1
FORD1,046 (16.5%)
↑3.8%prior 1,008
2
CHEV664 (10.5%)
↓-9.4%prior 733
3
CHEVROLET517 (8.2%)
↑20.5%prior 429
4
TOYT345 (5.5%)
↓-10.9%prior 387
5
TOYOTA249 (3.9%)
↑10.7%prior 225
6
DODG199 (3.1%)
↓-16.7%prior 239
7
HOND195 (3.1%)
↓-15.6%prior 231
8
DODGE193 (3%)
↑40.9%prior 137
9
JEEP177 (2.8%)
↑16.4%prior 152
10
KIA150 (2.4%)
↑11.9%prior 134

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (5,245 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,795 (53.3%)
↓-9.4%prior 3,085
Female2,450 (46.7%)
↓-11.4%prior 2,764

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31 · 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: 2016-01-01 through 2016-12-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2016-01-01 through 2016-12-31 (366 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 3,383
  • Total persons involved: 6,967
  • Total vehicles involved: 6,329

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: 2016." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2016-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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