ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2021
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/2021-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
3,909 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2021
In Scott County, total traffic crashes increased from 3,423 in 2020 to 3,909 in 2021, a 14.2% rise. Despite this increase in overall collisions, the number of fatalities resulting from these crashes decreased by 23.8%, from 21 to 16. The most notable shift was the rise in total crashes, indicating more frequent incidents, even as the most severe outcomes became less common.
3,909
▲ 14.2%was 3,423
Total Crash Events
16
▼ -23.8%was 21
Persons Killed
1,139
▲ 7.4%was 1,061
Persons Injured
15
▼ -11.8%was 17
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (16) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (15) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data for Scott County indicates a rising trend in the total number of collisions year-over-year. Incidents increased by 14.2%, from 3,423 in 2020 to 3,909 in 2021. This was accompanied by a 7.3% increase in total injuries, from 1,061 to 1,139, although total fatalities declined from 21 to 16 over the same period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
6
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
8
Motorists Killed
1
Other Killed
32
Pedestrians Injured
15
Cyclists Injured
1,088
Motorists Injured
4
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · 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 Scott County remained consistent between 2020 and 2021. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both years, with the count rising from 557 to 667. Similarly, the 3 p.m. hour was the peak time for incidents in both periods, with crash counts increasing from 300 to 347. No significant shifts occurred in the primary timing of collisions.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes increased, the severity of outcomes showed a mixed but generally less severe profile in 2021 compared to 2020. The fatal crash rate decreased from 0.5% to 0.4% of all crashes, with the absolute count of fatal crashes dropping from 17 to 15. The proportion of crashes involving serious injuries saw a slight increase from 1.5% to 1.7%, while the shares of minor and possible injury crashes remained stable at approximately 7.8% and 19.0% respectively.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 15 fatal crash events resulted in 16 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors for crashes remained largely the same year-over-year, with "Followed too close" and "Ran off road - left" as the top two causes in both 2020 and 2021. The count of crashes attributed to following too closely was nearly unchanged, rising from 510 to 513. However, crashes attributed to "FTYROW: Making left turn" increased by 20.4% from 186 to 224, and incidents involving a driver who "Lost Control" grew by 45.6% from 90 to 131.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The distribution of crashes across different conditions showed some shifts between 2020 and 2021. The proportion of crashes occurring in clear weather and on dry roads remained dominant and relatively stable. However, crashes on roads with ice or frost more than doubled in count, from 75 in 2020 to 161 in 2021, increasing their share of total crashes from 2.2% to 4.1%. Correspondingly, the count of crashes during snowy weather also rose from 71 to 121.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes were consistent year-over-year, with Chevrolet and Ford being the most common in both 2020 and 2021. The number of vehicles from these top makes involved in crashes increased, in line with the overall rise in collisions. Regarding driver demographics, the 26-34 age group represented the largest share of persons involved in crashes in both years, though its proportion decreased slightly from 16.1% in 2020 to 15.1% in 2021. Conversely, the 35-44 age group's involvement increased from 12.5% to 13.9% of all persons.
Top Vehicle Makes (7,328 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,754 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (5,788 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · 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: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 3,909
- Total persons involved: 8,920
- Total vehicles involved: 7,328
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: 2021." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2021-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: 2021-01-01 – 2021-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved