Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

3,766 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
FEBRUARY 2020

All metrics benchmarked againstFebruary 2019

In February 2020, there were 3,766 total traffic crashes, a 37.2% decrease from the 5,993 crashes recorded in February 2019. This significant year-over-year reduction in collisions was accompanied by a similar drop in injuries and a smaller drop in fatalities. The most notable shift between the two periods was a dramatic change in environmental conditions, with the prior year experiencing a high volume of crashes on icy and snowy roads, a factor that was far less prevalent in the current year.

3,766

▼ -37.2%was 5,993

Total Crash Events

17

▼ -15.0%was 20

Persons Killed

1,126

▼ -25.8%was 1,518

Persons Injured

15

▼ -11.8%was 17

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (17) 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 · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

The overall trend shows a significant year-over-year decrease in traffic incidents. Total crashes fell by 37.2% from 5,993 to 3,766. Correspondingly, total injuries decreased by 25.8% (from 1,518 to 1,126) and total fatalities saw a 15% reduction (from 20 to 17).

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

1

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→%

15

Motorists Killed

Prior: 20↓-25.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

27

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 24↑12.5%

11

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 0→%

1,085

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,492↓-27.3%

3

Other Injured

Prior: 2↑50.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The timing of crashes shifted between the two periods. In February 2020, the peak day for crashes was Friday with 681 incidents, and the peak hour was 3 p.m. with 333 incidents. This contrasts with February 2019, when Wednesday was the peak day (1,007 crashes) and the morning commute hour of 8 a.m. was the peak time (490 crashes).

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the absolute number of severe crashes decreased, the rate of severity increased year-over-year. The fatal crash rate per 100 crashes rose from 0.28% in February 2019 to 0.40% in February 2020. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries also increased, rising from 0.7% of all crashes in the prior period to 1.5% in the current period. Consequently, the share of crashes with no injuries reported decreased from 78.0% to 73.9%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 15 fatal crash events resulted in 17 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal15fatal crashes0.4%
↓-11.8%prior 17
Serious Injury58serious injury crashes1.5%
↑34.9%prior 43
Minor Injury296minor injury crashes7.9%
↓-18.7%prior 364
Possible Injury613possible injury crashes16.3%
↓-31.5%prior 895
No Injury2,784no injury crashes73.9%
↓-40.4%prior 4,674

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The ranking of top contributing factors changed significantly, primarily due to weather conditions. In February 2019, "Driving too fast for conditions" was the leading cause, cited in 1,197 crashes. In February 2020, this factor's count dropped by 81% to just 225 crashes. Conversely, crashes involving an "Animal" became the top factor in the current period, increasing in count by 42% from 281 to 399 incidents. "Followed too close" remained a top-three factor in both periods, with its count decreasing by 16% from 399 to 335.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal399 (10.6%)↑42.0%prior 281
Followed too close335 (8.9%)↓-16.0%prior 399
Ran off road - left256 (6.8%)↓-58.5%prior 617
Driving too fast for conditions225 (6%)↓-81.2%prior 1,197
Other (explain in narrative): Other221 (5.9%)↓-44.3%prior 397
Lost Control215 (5.7%)↓-40.8%prior 363
FTYROW: From stop sign215 (5.7%)↓-29.5%prior 305
FTYROW: Making left turn153 (4.1%)↓-41.6%prior 262
Ran Traffic Signal153 (4.1%)↓-18.2%prior 187
Ran off road - straight143 (3.8%)↓-51.4%prior 294

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Environmental conditions were markedly different between the two periods. In February 2020, 65.2% of crashes occurred on dry roads and 63.6% in clear weather. This is a stark contrast to February 2019, when crashes on icy or snowy surfaces accounted for 57.4% of the total, and snowy or freezing weather conditions were present in 28.9% of incidents. This suggests the substantial decrease in overall crashes is strongly linked to the more favorable road and weather conditions in the current period.

Weather

Clear2,394 (70.0%)
↓-2.6%prior 2,458
Cloudy579 (16.9%)
↓-55.4%prior 1,299
Snow257 (7.5%)
↓-71.4%prior 900
Blowing Snow62 (1.8%)
↓-84.3%prior 396
Freezing rain/drizzle52 (1.5%)
↓-88.0%prior 435
Rain31 (0.9%)
↓-42.6%prior 54
Fog, smoke, smog16 (0.5%)
↓-83.3%prior 96
Severe Winds11 (0.3%)
↓-80.4%prior 56
Other (explain in narrative)10 (0.3%)
↓-37.5%prior 16
Sleet, hail9 (0.3%)
↓-71.9%prior 32

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,226 (64.8%)
↓-42.9%prior 3,899
Dark - roadway lighted620 (18.0%)
↓-31.1%prior 900
Dark - roadway not lighted405 (11.8%)
↓-38.7%prior 661
Dusk94 (2.7%)
↓-33.8%prior 142
Dawn66 (1.9%)
↓-50.4%prior 133
Dark - unknown roadway lighting26 (0.8%)
↑13.0%prior 23

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry2,454 (71.5%)
↑98.2%prior 1,238
Snow317 (9.2%)
↓-81.0%prior 1,669
Ice/frost287 (8.4%)
↓-83.8%prior 1,770
Wet258 (7.5%)
↓-65.7%prior 753
Slush67 (2.0%)
↓-77.1%prior 292
Gravel29 (0.8%)
↑190.0%prior 10
Mud, dirt11 (0.3%)
↑83.3%prior 6
Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)
↓-57.1%prior 7
Sand3 (0.1%)
Water (standing or moving)1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The demographic data for vehicles and persons involved remained stable despite the large drop in crash volume. The ranking of top vehicle makes involved in crashes was unchanged, with Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota consistently being the top three in both February 2019 and February 2020. Similarly, the age distribution of persons involved in collisions showed no significant shifts; the proportional representation for every age group remained within approximately one percentage point year-over-year.

Top Vehicle Makes (6,550 vehicles)

1
FORD984 (15%)
↓-43.3%prior 1,734
2
CHEV886 (13.5%)
↓-37.6%prior 1,419
3
CHEVROLET390 (6%)
↓-44.0%prior 696
4
TOYT309 (4.7%)
↓-40.9%prior 523
5
DODG301 (4.6%)
↓-33.0%prior 449
6
JEEP266 (4.1%)
↓-28.1%prior 370
7
HOND242 (3.7%)
↓-27.3%prior 333
8
GMC193 (2.9%)
↓-36.9%prior 306
9
NR191 (2.9%)
↓-41.4%prior 326
10
NISS188 (2.9%)
↓-29.1%prior 265

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · Vehicle unit records

1,161 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (5,856 persons with recorded sex)

Male3,269 (55.8%)
↓-40.3%prior 5,480
Female2,587 (44.2%)
↓-33.7%prior 3,903

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · 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: 2020-02-01 through 2020-02-29
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-02-01 through 2020-02-29 (29 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 3,766
  • Total persons involved: 8,598
  • Total vehicles involved: 6,550

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: February 2020." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/february-2020-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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