ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2023
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/2023-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
408 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2023
In Plymouth County, total vehicle crashes decreased from 422 in 2022 to 408 in 2023, a 3.3% reduction. Despite this overall decline in collisions, the number of fatalities rose from 3 to 5 year-over-year. A notable positive trend was a 39.1% decrease in crashes involving driving under the influence, which fell from 23 incidents in the prior period to 14 in the current period.
408
▼ -3.3%was 422
Total Crash Events
5
▲ 66.7%was 3
Persons Killed
120
▲ 10.1%was 109
Persons Injured
4
▲ 33.3%was 3
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (5) 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 · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall traffic collisions in Plymouth County saw a slight year-over-year decrease of 3.3%, from 422 crashes in 2022 to 408 in 2023. However, the severity of these incidents worsened, with total injuries increasing by 10.1% from 109 to 120, and fatalities increasing from 3 to 5 people.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
0
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
5
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
2
Pedestrians Injured
2
Cyclists Injured
114
Motorists Injured
2
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes showed some shifts between the two periods. While the peak hour for collisions remained unchanged at 5 p.m. in both 2022 and 2023, with 38 crashes recorded in that hour each year, the peak day of the week changed. In 2023, Wednesday was the most frequent day for crashes with 68 incidents, shifting from Thursday, which was the peak day in 2022 with 78 incidents.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes declined, the severity of outcomes increased from 2022 to 2023. The number of fatal crashes rose from 3 to 4, and the total number of people killed increased from 3 to 5. Consequently, the fatal crash rate grew from 0.71% to 0.98% of all crashes. The number of crashes resulting in serious injuries decreased slightly from 13 to 11, while the proportion of crashes involving any type of injury remained stable at approximately 24% across both years.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 4 fatal crash events resulted in 5 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions with animals remained the leading contributing factor in both years, though the count decreased from 87 incidents in 2022 to 80 in 2023. The second most common factor in 2023 was 'Lost Control,' which saw its count increase by 35.7% from 28 to 38 crashes, moving it up in the rankings. Conversely, crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions' fell from 30 to 27, and those from 'Failure to yield from a stop sign' decreased from 24 to 20.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crash conditions remained broadly consistent year-over-year, with the majority of incidents in both periods occurring in clear weather, during daylight hours, and on dry road surfaces. In 2023, 58.1% of crashes happened on dry roads, a slight decrease from 61.4% in 2022. Correspondingly, crashes on roads with ice or frost saw a small increase, accounting for 11.5% of incidents in 2023 compared to 9.7% in 2022.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes showed some changes between periods. Ford remained the most common make with an identical count of 113 vehicles in both 2022 and 2023. However, Chevrolet vehicles saw a notable decrease from 107 to 80. Among persons involved in crashes, the 26-34 age group was the most represented in both years, though its count dropped from 145 to 134. The 55-64 age group's involvement decreased from 126 to 107 people.
Top Vehicle Makes (628 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
55 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (593 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · 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: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 408
- Total persons involved: 840
- Total vehicles involved: 628
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: 2023." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2023-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: 2023-01-01 – 2023-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved