Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

627 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2020

All metrics benchmarked against2019

In 2020, Marshall County recorded 627 total crashes, a 17.8% decrease from the 763 crashes reported in 2019. During this period, total fatalities also decreased from 5 to 3, and injuries fell from 227 to 203. The most notable year-over-year shift was the overall reduction in crash volume across nearly all reported metrics.

627

▼ -17.8%was 763

Total Crash Events

3

▼ -40.0%was 5

Persons Killed

203

▼ -10.6%was 227

Persons Injured

3

▼ -25.0%was 4

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (3) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) 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 Marshall County saw a downward trend from 2019 to 2020. The total number of crashes fell by 136, from 763 to 627. Similarly, the number of persons injured decreased from 227 to 203, and fatalities dropped from 5 to 3.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 1↓-100.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

3

Motorists Killed

Prior: 4↓-25.0%

2

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 6↓-66.7%

3

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 5↓-40.0%

198

Motorists Injured

Prior: 215↓-7.9%

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 temporal patterns of crashes shifted between the two periods. In 2020, the peak day for crashes was Friday with 113 incidents, a change from Wednesday (127 incidents) in the prior year. The peak hour for collisions also moved later in the day, from 3 p.m. in 2019 (73 crashes) to 5 p.m. in 2020 (51 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 fatal crash rate per 100 crashes decreased slightly from 0.52 in 2019 to 0.48 in 2020. While the share of fatal crashes remained stable at 0.5% of all incidents, the proportion of crashes resulting in a serious injury more than doubled, rising from 1.4% (11 crashes) to 3.0% (19 crashes). Conversely, the share of crashes with no injuries fell from 76.5% in 2019 to 71.6% in 2020.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal3fatal crashes0.5%
↓-25.0%prior 4
Serious Injury19serious injury crashes3%
↑72.7%prior 11
Minor Injury67minor injury crashes10.7%
↓-10.7%prior 75
Possible Injury89possible injury crashes14.2%
→0.0%prior 89
No Injury449no injury crashes71.6%
↓-23.1%prior 584

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 involving an animal remained the leading contributing factor in both years, though the count of such incidents decreased from 132 in 2019 to 110 in 2020. The top three factors remained consistent, with "FTYROW: From stop sign" (57 incidents in 2020 vs. 58 in 2019) and "Lost Control" (46 incidents in 2020 vs. 59 in 2019) swapping ranks. Notably, crashes attributed to "Driving too fast for conditions" fell by 58.8% from a count of 51 to 21, while crashes from "Ran Traffic Signal" increased by 58.8% from a count of 17 to 27.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal110 (17.5%)↓-16.7%prior 132
FTYROW: From stop sign57 (9.1%)↓-1.7%prior 58
Lost Control46 (7.3%)↓-22.0%prior 59
Other (explain in narrative): Other31 (4.9%)↓-42.6%prior 54
Ran Traffic Signal27 (4.3%)↑58.8%prior 17
Ran off road - straight26 (4.1%)↓-3.7%prior 27
Followed too close25 (4%)↓-28.6%prior 35
Ran off road - left23 (3.7%)↓-43.9%prior 41
Driving too fast for conditions21 (3.3%)↓-58.8%prior 51
Other (explain in narrative): No improper action20 (3.2%)↑100.0%prior 10

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The proportion of crashes occurring on dry roads increased from 54.9% in 2019 to 63.0% in 2020. There was a significant year-over-year reduction in the absolute number of crashes occurring on adverse road surfaces; incidents on snow-covered roads fell from 68 to 30, and crashes on icy or frosty roads dropped from 84 to 27. The percentage of crashes happening in daylight conditions decreased from 57.3% of all crashes in 2019 to 52.6% in 2020.

Weather

Clear375 (70.8%)
↓-16.9%prior 451
Cloudy92 (17.4%)
↓-14.8%prior 108
Rain17 (3.2%)
↓-29.2%prior 24
Snow17 (3.2%)
↓-52.8%prior 36
Blowing Snow13 (2.5%)
↓-35.0%prior 20
Freezing rain/drizzle10 (1.9%)
↑25.0%prior 8
Sleet, hail2 (0.4%)
Fog, smoke, smog2 (0.4%)
Other (explain in narrative)1 (0.2%)
Blowing sand, soil, dirt1 (0.2%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight330 (61.9%)
↓-24.5%prior 437
Dark - roadway lighted96 (18.0%)
→0.0%prior 96
Dark - roadway not lighted83 (15.6%)
↓-4.6%prior 87
Dusk13 (2.4%)
↓-35.0%prior 20
Dawn7 (1.3%)
↓-22.2%prior 9
Dark - unknown roadway lighting4 (0.8%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry395 (74.4%)
↓-5.7%prior 419
Wet48 (9.0%)
↓-14.3%prior 56
Snow30 (5.6%)
↓-55.9%prior 68
Ice/frost27 (5.1%)
↓-67.9%prior 84
Gravel17 (3.2%)
↑41.7%prior 12
Slush12 (2.3%)
↓-20.0%prior 15
Other (explain in narrative)2 (0.4%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

Ford and Chevrolet remained the top two vehicle makes involved in crashes for both periods, although the count for each make decreased year-over-year. The count of Ford vehicles in crashes fell from 211 to 160, and Chevrolet vehicles (listed as "CHEV") decreased from 208 to 144. Regarding the age of persons involved, the 26-34 age group was the most represented in both years, with its count dropping from 255 to 221. The number of persons in the 16-20 age group saw a slight increase from 187 to 191.

Top Vehicle Makes (1,013 vehicles)

1
FORD160 (15.8%)
↓-24.2%prior 211
2
CHEV144 (14.2%)
↓-30.8%prior 208
3
CHEVROLET65 (6.4%)
↓-5.8%prior 69
4
DODG53 (5.2%)
↓-30.3%prior 76
5
HOND45 (4.4%)
↓-15.1%prior 53
6
TOYT38 (3.8%)
↓-26.9%prior 52
7
GMC36 (3.6%)
↑20.0%prior 30
8
NISS33 (3.3%)
→0.0%prior 33
9
DODGE32 (3.2%)
→0.0%prior 32
10
NR32 (3.2%)
↑33.3%prior 24

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (868 persons with recorded sex)

Male499 (57.5%)
↓-25.4%prior 669
Female369 (42.5%)
↓-20.6%prior 465

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: 627
  • Total persons involved: 1,447
  • Total vehicles involved: 1,013

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

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Marshall County, IA Crash Report — 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com