ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · JANUARY 2024
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/january-2024-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
5,512 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
JANUARY 2024
In January 2024, there were 5,512 total crashes, an 18.4% increase from the 4,655 crashes recorded in January 2023. Despite the rise in overall collisions, the most notable year-over-year shift was a significant decrease in traffic fatalities, which fell from 26 to 15. The proportion of crashes occurring on slick road surfaces also increased substantially.
5,512
▲ 18.4%was 4,655
Total Crash Events
15
▼ -42.3%was 26
Persons Killed
1,227
▼ -1.7%was 1,248
Persons Injured
14
▼ -36.4%was 22
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (15) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (14) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Traffic crashes showed a rising trend in January 2024 compared to the same month in the prior year. The total number of crashes increased by 857, an 18.4% jump from the previous year. However, this increase in volume did not correspond to an increase in harm, as total injuries remained stable, decreasing slightly from 1,248 to 1,227.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
11
Motorists Killed
1
Other Killed
24
Pedestrians Injured
4
Cyclists Injured
1,199
Motorists Injured
0
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak hour for crashes was consistent year-over-year, occurring at 5 p.m. in both January 2024 (399 crashes) and January 2023 (406 crashes). The peak day for crashes, however, shifted from Wednesday (772 crashes) in the prior year to Tuesday (995 crashes) in the current period. Crash volumes on Monday and Tuesday were notably higher in the current period, each exceeding the prior year's single-day peak.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes increased, the overall severity of crashes decreased from the prior year. The number of fatal crashes fell from 22 to 14, and the corresponding fatal crash rate was nearly halved, dropping from 0.47% to 0.25%. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries also declined from 1.4% to 1.1% of all incidents.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 14 fatal crash events resulted in 15 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factor in both periods was "Driving too fast for conditions," which saw its count increase by 76% from 549 incidents in the prior year to 967 in the current period. "Ran off road - left" also saw a significant rise in count, increasing from 418 to 677 incidents and moving from the third to the second-ranked cause. Conversely, crashes involving animals decreased in count from 543 to 401, dropping from the second to the third most common factor.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Adverse road conditions were a more significant factor in January 2024 compared to the previous year. The share of crashes occurring on roads with snow, ice, or slush increased from 36.8% in January 2023 to 57.5% in January 2024. Similarly, crashes reported during snowy weather conditions rose from 15.1% to 21.3% of the total. Lighting conditions showed less variation, with daylight crashes accounting for the majority in both periods.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes remained stable year-over-year, with Ford and Chevrolet continuing to be the most frequently involved manufacturers in both periods. The age distribution of individuals involved in crashes also showed no significant shifts. The 26-34 and 35-44 age brackets consistently represented the largest shares of people involved in collisions in both January 2024 and January 2023.
Top Vehicle Makes (9,530 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,303 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (6,746 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31 · 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: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2024-01-01 through 2024-01-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 5,512
- Total persons involved: 9,752
- Total vehicles involved: 9,530
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: January 2024." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/january-2024-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: 2024-01-01 – 2024-01-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved