ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · MARCH 2017
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/march-2017-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
3,831 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
MARCH 2017
In March 2017, Iowa recorded 3,831 total traffic crashes, a 2.5% increase from the 3,738 crashes reported in March 2016. While total collisions rose, fatalities decreased from 25 to 23 year-over-year, and injuries increased slightly from 1,276 to 1,293. A notable trend was the increase in specific contributing factors, including a 20.2% rise in crashes involving an animal, which grew from 332 to 399 incidents.
3,831
▲ 2.5%was 3,738
Total Crash Events
23
▼ -8.0%was 25
Persons Killed
1,293
▲ 1.3%was 1,276
Persons Injured
21
▼ -4.5%was 22
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (23) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (21) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Overall, traffic collisions in Iowa showed a slight upward trend in March 2017 compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes increased by 2.5%, from 3,738 to 3,831, and total injuries saw a marginal rise of 1.3% from 1,276 to 1,293. In contrast, the number of fatalities resulting from these crashes decreased by 8%, from 25 to 23.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
1
Cyclists Killed
20
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
36
Pedestrians Injured
14
Cyclists Injured
1,242
Motorists Injured
1
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · 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 March 2016 and March 2017. The day with the highest number of crashes changed from Tuesday (648 crashes) in the prior period to Friday (674 crashes) in the current period. Similarly, the peak hour for collisions moved earlier in the day, shifting from 5 p.m. (295 crashes) in 2016 to 3 p.m. (305 crashes) in 2017.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
The distribution of crash severity remained largely stable year-over-year, with minor shifts. The number of fatal crashes decreased from 22 to 21, and their share of all crashes fell from 0.6% to 0.5%. Conversely, crashes resulting in serious injuries increased from 76 to 82, and those with minor injuries rose from 319 to 348. The proportion of crashes resulting in no injury saw a slight decrease from 71.0% in March 2016 to 70.8% in March 2017.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 21 fatal crash events resulted in 23 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
The leading contributing factors to crashes saw a notable shift in ranking between March 2016 and March 2017. Collisions involving an animal became the top factor, with the count of such incidents increasing by 20.2% from 332 to 399. The previously top-ranked factor, 'Followed too close,' decreased in count from 418 to 391 crashes. Other significant changes include a 16.1% increase in crashes where a driver 'Ran Traffic Signal' (from 143 to 166) and a 42.9% increase in crashes attributed to 'Exceeded authorized speed' (from 35 to 50).
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
In March 2017, a smaller proportion of crashes occurred in clear weather and on dry roads compared to March 2016. The share of crashes during clear weather fell from 50.4% to 45.4% of all incidents. Correspondingly, there was a significant increase in crashes under adverse winter conditions; incidents in snow more than doubled from 110 to 226, and crashes on snow-covered roads increased from 116 to 255. Crashes during daylight hours also represented a smaller share of the total, decreasing from 65.8% to 61.9% year-over-year.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The most common vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with Ford and Chevrolet continuing to be the top two. The number of Fords involved was nearly unchanged at 1,029 in March 2017 compared to 1,027 in the prior year, while the combined count for Chevrolet vehicles saw a small decrease. An analysis of persons involved in crashes shows a shift in age demographics; the proportion of those aged 16-20 decreased from 13.7% to 12.7% of all involved persons, and the 21-25 age group's share also fell from 11.5% to 10.5%.
Top Vehicle Makes (6,615 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
1,193 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (5,860 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31 · 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: 2017-03-01 through 2017-03-31
- Report generated: September 10, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2017-03-01 through 2017-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 3,831
- Total persons involved: 8,557
- Total vehicles involved: 6,615
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: March 2017." Published September 10, 2026. Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2017-03-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/march-2017-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: 2017-03-01 – 2017-03-31
Generated: September 10, 2026 · All rights reserved