Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

2,989 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
MARCH 2020

All metrics benchmarked againstMarch 2019

In March 2020, Iowa recorded 2,989 traffic crashes, a 26.2% decrease from the 4,049 crashes reported in March 2019. This significant year-over-year reduction in total collisions was accompanied by a 39.1% decrease in fatalities (from 23 to 14) and a 21.9% decrease in injuries (from 1,230 to 961). The most notable shift was the overall decline in crash volume across the state.

2,989

▼ -26.2%was 4,049

Total Crash Events

14

▼ -39.1%was 23

Persons Killed

961

▼ -21.9%was 1,230

Persons Injured

13

▼ -31.6%was 19

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (14) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (13) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash data for March 2020 indicates a significant downward trend compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes fell by 26.2%, from 4,049 to 2,989. This decline was mirrored in casualties, with total fatalities decreasing by 39.1% and total injuries dropping by 21.9%.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 2↓-50.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

13

Motorists Killed

Prior: 21↓-38.1%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

25

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 20↑25.0%

10

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 8↑25.0%

922

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,200↓-23.2%

4

Other Injured

Prior: 2↑100.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

Temporal patterns shifted between the two periods, with the peak day for crashes moving from Friday (731 crashes) in March 2019 to Monday (516 crashes) in March 2020. The peak hour for collisions remained in the afternoon commute window but shifted slightly from 3 p.m. (336 crashes) in the prior year to 4 p.m. (226 crashes) in the current period. Crash volumes were lower across all days and hours in March 2020 compared to March 2019.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the absolute number of fatal crashes decreased from 19 to 13 year-over-year, the fatal crash rate as a percentage of all crashes saw a minor decrease from 0.47% to 0.43%. Conversely, the proportion of crashes resulting in injuries increased slightly. The share of crashes involving serious injuries rose from 1.2% to 2.2% of the total, while the proportion of no-injury crashes decreased from 74.5% in March 2019 to 71.5% in March 2020.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 13 fatal crash events resulted in 14 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal13fatal crashes0.4%
↓-31.6%prior 19
Serious Injury66serious injury crashes2.2%
↑32.0%prior 50
Minor Injury260minor injury crashes8.7%
↓-24.4%prior 344
Possible Injury514possible injury crashes17.2%
↓-17.1%prior 620
No Injury2,136no injury crashes71.5%
↓-29.2%prior 3,016

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Collisions involving an 'Animal' remained the top contributing factor in both March 2020 (439 crashes) and March 2019 (479 crashes), a decrease of 8.4% in count. 'Followed too close' was the second most common factor in both periods, with its count dropping by 29.8% from 396 to 278. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions' decreased by 55.7% in count, falling from 230 incidents in the prior year to 102 in the current period.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal439 (14.7%)↓-8.4%prior 479
Followed too close278 (9.3%)↓-29.8%prior 396
Ran off road - left190 (6.4%)↓-23.7%prior 249
Other (explain in narrative): Other174 (5.8%)↓-35.6%prior 270
Lost Control168 (5.6%)↓-16.8%prior 202
FTYROW: From stop sign166 (5.6%)↓-20.6%prior 209
Ran Traffic Signal114 (3.8%)↓-31.7%prior 167
Ran off road - straight108 (3.6%)↓-21.7%prior 138
FTYROW: Making left turn105 (3.5%)↓-31.8%prior 154
Driving too fast for conditions102 (3.4%)↓-55.7%prior 230

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The proportion of crashes occurring on dry road surfaces increased from 58.8% in March 2019 to 66.5% in March 2020, despite a decrease in the total number of such incidents. Correspondingly, crashes on adverse surfaces saw a significant year-over-year reduction; crashes on snow-covered roads dropped from 228 to 29, and incidents on icy or frosty roads fell from 314 to 64. The share of crashes happening in daylight decreased from 65.5% to 59.9% of all crashes.

Weather

Clear1,689 (64.1%)
↓-25.6%prior 2,270
Cloudy561 (21.3%)
↓-33.1%prior 839
Rain233 (8.8%)
↑23.3%prior 189
Snow70 (2.7%)
↓-55.1%prior 156
Freezing rain/drizzle28 (1.1%)
↓-67.1%prior 85
Fog, smoke, smog23 (0.9%)
↓-32.4%prior 34
Severe Winds12 (0.5%)
↑33.3%prior 9
Other (explain in narrative)8 (0.3%)
↓-11.1%prior 9
Blowing Snow7 (0.3%)
↓-82.1%prior 39
Sleet, hail3 (0.1%)
↓-72.7%prior 11

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight1,792 (67.6%)
↓-32.4%prior 2,652
Dark - roadway lighted397 (15.0%)
↓-18.0%prior 484
Dark - roadway not lighted322 (12.1%)
↓-3.6%prior 334
Dawn73 (2.8%)
↓-2.7%prior 75
Dusk57 (2.1%)
↓-42.4%prior 99
Dark - unknown roadway lighting11 (0.4%)
↑22.2%prior 9

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry1,988 (75.3%)
↓-16.4%prior 2,379
Wet489 (18.5%)
↓-19.4%prior 607
Ice/frost64 (2.4%)
↓-79.6%prior 314
Gravel36 (1.4%)
↑100.0%prior 18
Snow29 (1.1%)
↓-87.3%prior 228
Slush15 (0.6%)
↓-81.9%prior 83
Mud, dirt14 (0.5%)
↑55.6%prior 9
Other (explain in narrative)3 (0.1%)
↓-57.1%prior 7
Sand2 (0.1%)
↓-60.0%prior 5

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The ranking of the most common vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent year-over-year, with Ford and Chevrolet continuing as the top two makes in both March 2019 and March 2020. The total number of vehicles for each make decreased in line with the overall drop in crashes. An analysis of persons involved shows a slight shift in age demographics; the proportion of individuals aged 16-20 increased from 11.2% to 12.3% of all persons involved, while the share for the 65+ age group decreased from 10.7% to 9.2%.

Top Vehicle Makes (5,010 vehicles)

1
FORD782 (15.6%)
↓-35.0%prior 1,203
2
CHEV670 (13.4%)
↓-28.6%prior 939
3
CHEVROLET333 (6.6%)
↓-23.8%prior 437
4
TOYT219 (4.4%)
↓-29.1%prior 309
5
DODG203 (4.1%)
↓-34.3%prior 309
6
JEEP188 (3.8%)
↓-31.6%prior 275
7
HOND175 (3.5%)
↓-15.5%prior 207
8
NR156 (3.1%)
↓-29.1%prior 220
9
NISS140 (2.8%)
↓-29.6%prior 199
10
GMC140 (2.8%)
↓-32.7%prior 208

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · Vehicle unit records

1,004 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (4,421 persons with recorded sex)

Male2,533 (57.3%)
↓-27.0%prior 3,469
Female1,888 (42.7%)
↓-31.5%prior 2,755

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31 · 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: 2020-03-01 through 2020-03-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-03-01 through 2020-03-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 2,989
  • Total persons involved: 6,827
  • Total vehicles involved: 5,010

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 2020." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-03-01 to 2020-03-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/march-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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Iowa (Statewide) Crash Report — March 2020 | ThatCarHitMe.com