Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

3,997 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
JULY 2022

All metrics benchmarked againstJuly 2021

In July 2022, Iowa recorded 3,997 traffic crashes, a 5.1% decrease from the 4,213 crashes in July 2021. Despite the overall reduction in collisions, the number of fatalities increased from 34 to 41 year-over-year. The most notable shift was this 20.6% increase in traffic deaths, occurring alongside a 4.2% decrease in total injuries.

3,997

▼ -5.1%was 4,213

Total Crash Events

▲ 20.6%was 34

Persons Killed

1,481

▼ -4.2%was 1,546

Persons Injured

▲ 16.1%was 31

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (41) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (36) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic crashes in Iowa declined by 5.1% in July 2022 compared to the same month in the prior year, falling from 4,213 to 3,997. However, this decrease in total crashes was accompanied by a negative trend in crash outcomes, as fatalities rose by 20.6% from 34 to 41. The total number of injuries saw a modest 4.2% decrease from 1,546 to 1,481.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2↓-50.0%

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→%

Motorists Killed

Prior: 32↑21.9%

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 25↓-4.0%

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 27↑59.3%

1,410

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,490↓-5.4%

Other Injured

Prior: 4→0.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · 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 July 2022 (788 crashes) and July 2021 (834 crashes). The peak hour for collisions shifted slightly, from the 3 p.m. hour in 2021 (330 crashes) to the 4 p.m. hour in 2022 (328 crashes), indicating that the afternoon commute continues to be the most frequent time for incidents.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes decreased, the severity of crashes worsened in July 2022 compared to July 2021. The number of fatal crashes increased from 31 to 36, and the fatal crash rate rose from 0.74% to 0.90% of all crashes. The proportion of crashes resulting in serious injuries remained stable at 2.9% in both periods, while crashes with possible injuries saw a slight proportional increase from 15.8% to 16.6%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 36 fatal crash events resulted in 41 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal36fatal crashes0.9%

↑16.1%prior 31

Serious Injury115serious injury crashes2.9%

↓-5.7%prior 122

Minor Injury484minor injury crashes12.1%

↓-6.9%prior 520

Possible Injury663possible injury crashes16.6%

↓-0.3%prior 665

No Injury2,699no injury crashes67.5%

↓-6.1%prior 2,875

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent between July 2021 and July 2022, though their order shifted. In July 2022, 'Animal' was the top factor with 478 crashes, a slight decrease from 482 crashes in the prior year. 'Followed too close' dropped to the second position, with its crash count decreasing by 21.2% from 518 to 408. Conversely, crashes attributed to 'Improper or erratic lane changing' increased in count by 23.9%, from 92 to 114.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal478 (12%)↓-0.8%prior 482

Followed too close408 (10.2%)↓-21.2%prior 518

Other (explain in narrative): Other259 (6.5%)↓-2.6%prior 266

FTYROW: From stop sign217 (5.4%)↑0.9%prior 215

Ran off road - left215 (5.4%)↓-17.6%prior 261

FTYROW: Making left turn189 (4.7%)↑17.4%prior 161

Lost Control182 (4.6%)↓-15.3%prior 215

Operating vehicle in an reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner153 (3.8%)↑4.1%prior 147

Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction145 (3.6%)↑7.4%prior 135

Ran Traffic Signal142 (3.6%)↑8.4%prior 131

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crash conditions were remarkably similar between July 2022 and July 2021. In both periods, the vast majority of crashes occurred in clear weather (75.9% in 2022 vs. 73.1% in 2021) and during daylight hours (70.4% in 2022 vs. 70.5% in 2021). Crashes on dry road surfaces also remained the dominant condition, accounting for 83.1% of incidents in 2022 compared to 82.0% in 2021, showing no significant year-over-year shift in the prevalence of adverse conditions.

Weather

Clear3,034 (84.4%)

↓-1.5%prior 3,081

Cloudy418 (11.6%)

↓-23.4%prior 546

Rain126 (3.5%)

↓-17.1%prior 152

Fog, smoke, smog6 (0.2%)

↓-68.4%prior 19

Severe Winds3 (0.1%)

Blowing sand, soil, dirt2 (0.1%)

Sleet, hail2 (0.1%)

Other (explain in narrative)2 (0.1%)

↓-66.7%prior 6

Freezing rain/drizzle1 (0.0%)

↓-80.0%prior 5

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,813 (78.1%)

↓-5.3%prior 2,970

Dark - roadway lighted363 (10.1%)

↓-10.6%prior 406

Dark - roadway not lighted286 (7.9%)

↓-6.8%prior 307

Dusk82 (2.3%)

↑7.9%prior 76

Dawn46 (1.3%)

↓-4.2%prior 48

Dark - unknown roadway lighting14 (0.4%)

↑27.3%prior 11

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry3,321 (92.1%)

↓-3.9%prior 3,454

Wet184 (5.1%)

↓-26.7%prior 251

Gravel91 (2.5%)

↓-7.1%prior 98

Mud, dirt4 (0.1%)

↓-50.0%prior 8

Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)

↓-40.0%prior 5

Sand1 (0.0%)

Water (standing or moving)1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes showed little change year-over-year, with Chevrolet and Ford vehicles consistently being the most numerous in both July 2021 and July 2022. Analysis of persons involved in crashes reveals a demographic shift in age distribution. The number of persons aged 16-20 involved in crashes decreased from 1,238 to 1,121, while the number of persons aged 65 and older increased from 1,004 to 1,078.

Top Vehicle Makes (6,902 vehicles)

FORD1,058 (15.3%)

↓-5.7%prior 1,122

CHEV875 (12.7%)

↑8.7%prior 805

CHEVROLET418 (6.1%)

↓-35.7%prior 650

TOYT303 (4.4%)

↑4.1%prior 291

JEEP260 (3.8%)

↓-8.5%prior 284

HOND251 (3.6%)

↑22.4%prior 205

NISS247 (3.6%)

↑33.5%prior 185

GMC244 (3.5%)

↓-6.2%prior 260

DODG221 (3.2%)

↑1.8%prior 217

NR208 (3%)

→0.0%prior 208

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · Vehicle unit records

1,285 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (6,128 persons with recorded sex)

Male3,611 (58.9%)

↑3.8%prior 3,480

Female2,517 (41.1%)

↓-2.8%prior 2,590

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31 · 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: 2022-07-01 through 2022-07-31
Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2022-07-01 through 2022-07-31 (31 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 3,997
Total persons involved: 9,385
Total vehicles involved: 6,902

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: July 2022." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2022-07-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/july-2022-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

3,997 CRASHES INIOWA, IAJULY 2022