Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

5,406 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
DECEMBER 2025

All metrics benchmarked againstDecember 2024

In December 2025, there were 5,406 total crashes, an 8.8% increase from the 4,967 crashes recorded in December 2024. Despite the rise in total collisions, the number of fatalities saw a significant decrease, falling from 36 in the prior year period to 11 in the current period. A notable shift in conditions was observed, with a higher proportion of crashes occurring on roads with snow, ice, or slush.

5,406

▲ 8.8%was 4,967

Total Crash Events

11

▼ -69.4%was 36

Persons Killed

1,384

▲ 6.5%was 1,299

Persons Injured

11

▼ -62.1%was 29

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (11) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (11) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash volume increased year-over-year, with total crashes rising by 8.8% from 4,967 in December 2024 to 5,406 in December 2025. The number of injuries also increased by 6.5% to 1,384. However, fatalities showed a sharp decline, dropping by 69.4% from 36 to 11 over the same period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

9

Motorists Killed

Prior: 34↓-73.5%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

28

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 32↓-12.5%

2

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 13↓-84.6%

1,351

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,252↑7.9%

3

Other Injured

Prior: 2↑50.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes remained largely consistent year-over-year. The peak hour for collisions in both December 2025 and December 2024 was the 5 PM hour, with 561 and 586 crashes respectively. Monday was the peak day in both periods, though the number of Monday crashes decreased from 1,110 to 945. In December 2025, crash volumes were more evenly distributed across the top three days (Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday) compared to the prior year, where Monday had a significantly higher concentration of incidents.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The overall severity of crashes decreased in December 2025 compared to the previous year. The proportion of fatal crashes fell from 0.6% to 0.2% of all incidents. Similarly, crashes resulting in serious injuries declined from 1.6% to 1.2% of the total, while the share of crashes with no injuries increased from 75.7% in December 2024 to 77.3% in December 2025.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal11fatal crashes0.2%
↓-62.1%prior 29
Serious Injury64serious injury crashes1.2%
↓-16.9%prior 77
Minor Injury399minor injury crashes7.4%
↑3.1%prior 387
Possible Injury752possible injury crashes13.9%
↑5.6%prior 712
No Injury4,180no injury crashes77.3%
↑11.1%prior 3,762

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The ranking of top contributing factors shifted between the two periods. In December 2025, 'Driving too fast for conditions' became the leading factor with 798 incidents, a 55.6% increase in count from 513 crashes the previous year. 'Animal' involvement, the top factor in December 2024 with 753 crashes, dropped to the second position with 550 crashes, a 26.9% decrease in count. Crashes attributed to 'Ran off road - left' also saw a notable increase in count, rising by 24.0% from 438 to 543.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Driving too fast for conditions798 (14.8%)↑55.6%prior 513
Animal550 (10.2%)↓-27.0%prior 753
Ran off road - left543 (10%)↑24.0%prior 438
Followed too close421 (7.8%)↑5.5%prior 399
Other (explain in narrative): Other277 (5.1%)↑9.5%prior 253
FTYROW: From stop sign241 (4.5%)↑14.8%prior 210
Lost Control235 (4.3%)↓-4.9%prior 247
FTYROW: Making left turn219 (4.1%)↑10.6%prior 198
Ran Traffic Signal182 (3.4%)↑22.1%prior 149
Ran Stop Sign179 (3.3%)↑32.6%prior 135

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

There was a significant shift in road conditions between the two periods. In December 2025, 42.7% of crashes occurred on roads with snow, ice, or slush, a substantial increase from 23.5% in the prior year. This corresponds with a rise in the share of crashes during snowy weather, which accounted for 17.5% of incidents compared to 9.2% in December 2024. Consequently, the proportion of crashes on dry roads decreased from 49.5% to 34.0% year-over-year.

Weather

Clear2,603 (53.1%)
↑16.0%prior 2,243
Cloudy1,058 (21.6%)
↑19.7%prior 884
Snow717 (14.6%)
↑68.3%prior 426
Blowing Snow227 (4.6%)
↑609.4%prior 32
Fog, smoke, smog113 (2.3%)
↓-49.8%prior 225
Severe Winds60 (1.2%)
↑185.7%prior 21
Freezing rain/drizzle54 (1.1%)
↓-79.3%prior 261
Rain38 (0.8%)
↓-75.9%prior 158
Other (explain in narrative)25 (0.5%)
↑108.3%prior 12
Sleet, hail7 (0.1%)
↓-22.2%prior 9

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,891 (58.8%)
↑23.9%prior 2,333
Dark - roadway lighted1,133 (23.0%)
↑14.9%prior 986
Dark - roadway not lighted579 (11.8%)
↓-13.2%prior 667
Dusk165 (3.4%)
↑13.0%prior 146
Dawn114 (2.3%)
↑2.7%prior 111
Dark - unknown roadway lighting37 (0.8%)
↓-57.0%prior 86

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry1,837 (37.5%)
↓-25.2%prior 2,457
Snow1,314 (26.8%)
↑169.8%prior 487
Ice/frost805 (16.4%)
↑26.8%prior 635
Wet719 (14.7%)
↑21.2%prior 593
Slush191 (3.9%)
↑344.2%prior 43
Gravel22 (0.4%)
↓-58.5%prior 53
Other (explain in narrative)12 (0.2%)
↑140.0%prior 5
Mud, dirt3 (0.1%)
Sand1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The composition of vehicles involved in crashes remained consistent year-over-year. Ford (1,496 vehicles) and Chevrolet (1,347 vehicles) were the top two makes involved in collisions in December 2025, maintaining their rankings from the prior year. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes also showed little change. The 35-44 age group represented the largest share of individuals in the current period at 15.9% (1,560 persons), slightly up from 15.0% (1,270 persons) in December 2024.

Top Vehicle Makes (9,531 vehicles)

1
FORD1,496 (15.7%)
↑11.2%prior 1,345
2
CHEV1,347 (14.1%)
↑23.2%prior 1,093
3
TOYT507 (5.3%)
↑20.4%prior 421
4
JEEP443 (4.6%)
↑15.1%prior 385
5
HOND435 (4.6%)
↑33.4%prior 326
6
CHEVROLET373 (3.9%)
↓-7.2%prior 402
7
GMC366 (3.8%)
↑7.6%prior 340
8
NISS337 (3.5%)
↑9.1%prior 309
9
DODG323 (3.4%)
↑14.9%prior 281
10
KIA285 (3%)
↑16.8%prior 244

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

1,119 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (6,760 persons with recorded sex)

Male4,071 (60.2%)
↑28.4%prior 3,171
Female2,689 (39.8%)
↑18.6%prior 2,267

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31 · 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: 2025-12-01 through 2025-12-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2025-12-01 through 2025-12-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 5,406
  • Total persons involved: 9,818
  • Total vehicles involved: 9,531

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: December 2025." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2025-12-01 to 2025-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/december-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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