Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

4,051 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
AUGUST 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstAugust 2024

In August 2025, Iowa recorded 4,051 traffic crashes, a slight decrease of 0.9% from the 4,089 crashes reported in August 2024. Despite the stable overall crash volume, the number of fatalities saw a notable decline, dropping 18.2% from 44 in the prior year to 36 in the current period. Total injuries also decreased by 6.0% year-over-year, from 1,517 to 1,426.

4,051

▼ -0.9%was 4,089

Total Crash Events

36

▼ -18.2%was 44

Persons Killed

1,426

▼ -6.0%was 1,517

Persons Injured

34

▼ -17.1%was 41

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (36) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (34) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic crash volume in Iowa remained stable, with a minor 0.9% decrease from 4,089 incidents in August 2024 to 4,051 in August 2025. However, the severity of these crashes lessened, as total fatalities fell by 18.2% and total injuries decreased by 6.0% compared to the same month last year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

5

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 3↑66.7%

1

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→%

30

Motorists Killed

Prior: 41↓-26.8%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

36

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 30↑20.0%

43

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 44↓-2.3%

1,336

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,435↓-6.9%

11

Other Injured

Prior: 8↑37.5%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained largely consistent year-over-year. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both August 2025 (793 crashes) and August 2024 (797 crashes). The peak hour shifted slightly, from 3 PM in the prior year (343 crashes) to 4 PM in the current period (328 crashes), though the afternoon commute hours consistently saw the highest crash volumes in both years.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes decreased in August 2025 compared to the previous year, with the fatal crash rate dropping from 1.0% to 0.84% of all incidents. The proportion of crashes resulting in any level of injury also declined, while the share of crashes with no injuries increased from 67.9% to 69.9%. Specifically, the share of serious injury crashes fell from 2.9% to 2.6% and minor injury crashes fell from 11.7% to 10.5%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 34 fatal crash events resulted in 36 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal34fatal crashes0.8%
↓-17.1%prior 41
Serious Injury107serious injury crashes2.6%
↓-10.8%prior 120
Minor Injury425minor injury crashes10.5%
↓-10.9%prior 477
Possible Injury654possible injury crashes16.1%
↓-3.1%prior 675
No Injury2,831no injury crashes69.9%
↑2.0%prior 2,776

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factors for crashes showed some shifts in volume year-over-year. 'Followed too close' remained the top cited factor, with the count of such incidents increasing by 8.0% from 488 to 527. Crashes involving animals held steady as a leading factor, with counts of 332 and 326 in the current and prior periods, respectively. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction' rose by 15.6% (from a count of 147 to 170), while those involving 'FTYROW: From stop sign' decreased by 9.1% (from a count of 232 to 211).

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Followed too close527 (13%)↑8.0%prior 488
Animal332 (8.2%)↑1.8%prior 326
Other (explain in narrative): Other226 (5.6%)↑4.1%prior 217
Ran off road - left222 (5.5%)↑4.7%prior 212
FTYROW: From stop sign211 (5.2%)↓-9.1%prior 232
FTYROW: Making left turn188 (4.6%)↓-7.8%prior 204
Lost Control175 (4.3%)↑8.7%prior 161
Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction170 (4.2%)↑15.6%prior 147
Ran Traffic Signal154 (3.8%)↑2.0%prior 151
Operating vehicle in an reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner138 (3.4%)↓-7.4%prior 149

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crash conditions remained largely unchanged between the two periods, with the vast majority of incidents occurring in favorable conditions. In August 2025, 80.0% of crashes happened in clear weather and 86.6% on dry road surfaces, proportions nearly identical to August 2024 (78.6% and 86.0%, respectively). Crashes in daylight accounted for 73.7% of the total, consistent with the prior year's 73.5%. The number of crashes on wet roads and in unlighted dark conditions saw minor decreases.

Weather

Clear3,240 (86.4%)
↑0.8%prior 3,215
Cloudy379 (10.1%)
↓-15.2%prior 447
Rain100 (2.7%)
↓-9.1%prior 110
Fog, smoke, smog26 (0.7%)
↑100.0%prior 13
Other (explain in narrative)1 (0.0%)
↓-83.3%prior 6
Blowing sand, soil, dirt1 (0.0%)
Sleet, hail1 (0.0%)
Severe Winds1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,986 (79.2%)
↓-0.7%prior 3,007
Dark - roadway lighted369 (9.8%)
↑7.0%prior 345
Dark - roadway not lighted255 (6.8%)
↓-13.6%prior 295
Dusk74 (2.0%)
↓-5.1%prior 78
Dawn68 (1.8%)
→0.0%prior 68
Dark - unknown roadway lighting18 (0.5%)
↓-52.6%prior 38

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry3,507 (93.3%)
↓-0.3%prior 3,518
Wet170 (4.5%)
↓-10.1%prior 189
Gravel74 (2.0%)
↓-18.7%prior 91
Other (explain in narrative)4 (0.1%)
Water (standing or moving)2 (0.1%)
Sand1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes were consistent year-over-year, with Ford and Chevrolet variants remaining the most common. The top vehicle makes involved in crashes saw minimal changes in their rankings or counts. An analysis of persons involved shows a relatively stable age distribution, with the 35-44 age group being the largest cohort in the current period with 1,111 individuals, followed by the 26-34 age group with 1,063 individuals.

Top Vehicle Makes (7,241 vehicles)

1
FORD1,096 (15.1%)
↓-1.0%prior 1,107
2
CHEV960 (13.3%)
↑1.1%prior 950
3
TOYT369 (5.1%)
↓-1.6%prior 375
4
CHEVROLET360 (5%)
↓-11.8%prior 408
5
HOND332 (4.6%)
↑7.8%prior 308
6
JEEP288 (4%)
↓-18.4%prior 353
7
GMC259 (3.6%)
↓-4.1%prior 270
8
NISS258 (3.6%)
↑2.0%prior 253
9
DODG248 (3.4%)
↑8.3%prior 229
10
KIA214 (3%)
↑3.9%prior 206

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (4,800 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,733 (56.9%)
↓-2.4%prior 2,799
Female2,067 (43.1%)
↑3.1%prior 2,005

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31 · 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: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-08-01 through 2025-08-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 4,051
  • Total persons involved: 7,597
  • Total vehicles involved: 7,241

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: August 2025." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-08-01 to 2025-08-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/august-2025-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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