Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

4,069 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
JULY 2024

All metrics benchmarked againstJuly 2023

In July 2024, Iowa recorded 4,069 total traffic crashes, a 0.9% increase from the 4,032 crashes in July 2023. While overall crash volume remained stable, total fatalities decreased by 7.1% from 42 to 39, and total injuries fell 3.8% from 1,503 to 1,446. The most notable shift was a 6.1% increase in the number of distinct fatal crash events, from 33 to 35, even as the total number of people killed declined.

4,069

▲ 0.9%was 4,032

Total Crash Events

39

▼ -7.1%was 42

Persons Killed

1,446

▼ -3.8%was 1,503

Persons Injured

35

▲ 6.1%was 33

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (39) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (35) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall crash trends in Iowa were relatively stable year-over-year. Total crashes increased by a marginal 0.9%, from 4,032 in July 2023 to 4,069 in July 2024. Despite this slight rise in collisions, key severity metrics showed a positive trend, with total injuries decreasing by 3.8% and total fatalities falling by 7.1%.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

2

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2→0.0%

1

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 1→0.0%

36

Motorists Killed

Prior: 39↓-7.7%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

29

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 36↓-19.4%

37

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 40↓-7.5%

1,371

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,418↓-3.3%

9

Other Injured

Prior: 9→0.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes shifted between the two periods. The peak day for crashes moved from Monday (690 crashes) in July 2023 to Wednesday (735 crashes) in July 2024, indicating a concentration of incidents in the middle of the week. The peak hour for collisions remained consistent at the 4 p.m. hour in both years, though the volume in that hour decreased slightly from 369 to 347 crashes.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The severity of crashes showed a mixed trend year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes increased from 33 to 35, and the fatal crash rate per 100 crashes rose from 0.82 to 0.86. However, the overall proportion of crashes resulting in any level of injury (Serious, Minor, or Possible) decreased from 31.8% in July 2023 to 29.7% in July 2024. Correspondingly, crashes resulting in no injury increased from 2,717 to 2,825.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 35 fatal crash events resulted in 39 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal35fatal crashes0.9%
↑6.1%prior 33
Serious Injury128serious injury crashes3.1%
↑14.3%prior 112
Minor Injury493minor injury crashes12.1%
↓-3.7%prior 512
Possible Injury588possible injury crashes14.5%
↓-10.6%prior 658
No Injury2,825no injury crashes69.4%
↑4.0%prior 2,717

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The top three contributing factors—Animal, Followed too close, and Ran off road - left—retained their rankings in both periods. The count of crashes involving an animal increased by 10.3%, from 457 to 504 incidents. Collisions attributed to failure to yield from a stop sign also grew, with the count rising 13.3% from 195 to 221. In contrast, crashes where a driver lost control saw a 9.5% decrease in count, falling from 201 to 182.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal504 (12.4%)↑10.3%prior 457
Followed too close436 (10.7%)↑1.6%prior 429
Ran off road - left247 (6.1%)↑10.8%prior 223
Other (explain in narrative): Other226 (5.6%)↑2.3%prior 221
FTYROW: From stop sign221 (5.4%)↑13.3%prior 195
Lost Control182 (4.5%)↓-9.5%prior 201
Ran Traffic Signal165 (4.1%)↓-2.9%prior 170
Driver Distraction: Other interior distraction156 (3.8%)↓-3.7%prior 162
FTYROW: Making left turn151 (3.7%)↓-15.6%prior 179
Ran Stop Sign129 (3.2%)↑15.2%prior 112

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The share of crashes occurring under adverse conditions increased compared to the prior year. Collisions in clear weather made up 69.9% of the total in July 2024, down from 75.6% in July 2023. Similarly, the proportion of crashes on dry roads decreased from 82.5% to 79.1%. This was accompanied by a rise in the share of crashes occurring in rain (from 3.7% to 4.6%) and on wet surfaces (from 5.6% to 7.9%).

Weather

Clear2,849 (78.8%)
↓-6.6%prior 3,049
Cloudy549 (15.2%)
↑28.6%prior 427
Rain187 (5.2%)
↑25.5%prior 149
Fog, smoke, smog15 (0.4%)
↓-37.5%prior 24
Other (explain in narrative)6 (0.2%)
Severe Winds6 (0.2%)
Sleet, hail3 (0.1%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,877 (78.5%)
↓-2.0%prior 2,936
Dark - roadway lighted346 (9.4%)
↑5.2%prior 329
Dark - roadway not lighted258 (7.0%)
↓-6.5%prior 276
Dusk85 (2.3%)
↑18.1%prior 72
Dawn61 (1.7%)
↑17.3%prior 52
Dark - unknown roadway lighting40 (1.1%)
↑207.7%prior 13

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry3,218 (88.6%)
↓-3.3%prior 3,327
Wet321 (8.8%)
↑42.0%prior 226
Gravel83 (2.3%)
↓-12.6%prior 95
Water (standing or moving)5 (0.1%)
Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)
↓-66.7%prior 9
Mud, dirt2 (0.1%)
↓-77.8%prior 9

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The most frequent vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford and Chevrolet vehicles being the most common in both periods. The number of Ford vehicles involved in crashes increased from 1,087 to 1,163 year-over-year. The combined count for Chevrolet vehicles (listed as both "CHEV" and "CHEVROLET") was nearly identical, with 1,305 in the current period versus 1,316 in the prior year. The top-level rankings of vehicle makes involved in collisions showed minimal change.

Top Vehicle Makes (7,018 vehicles)

1
FORD1,163 (16.6%)
↑7.0%prior 1,087
2
CHEV922 (13.1%)
↓-4.5%prior 965
3
CHEVROLET383 (5.5%)
↑9.1%prior 351
4
TOYT312 (4.4%)
↓-5.5%prior 330
5
JEEP304 (4.3%)
↑12.6%prior 270
6
GMC267 (3.8%)
↑13.1%prior 236
7
HOND264 (3.8%)
↑6.9%prior 247
8
DODG226 (3.2%)
↓-4.6%prior 237
9
KIA210 (3%)
↑22.1%prior 172
10
NISS208 (3%)
↓-11.1%prior 234

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (4,462 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,634 (59.0%)
↓-28.4%prior 3,680
Female1,828 (41.0%)
↓-27.4%prior 2,518

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31 · 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: 2024-07-01 through 2024-07-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2024-07-01 through 2024-07-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 4,069
  • Total persons involved: 7,391
  • Total vehicles involved: 7,018

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 2024." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2024-07-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/july-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

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Iowa (Statewide) Crash Report — July 2024 | ThatCarHitMe.com