Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

5,238 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
OCTOBER 2021

All metrics benchmarked againstOctober 2020

In October 2021, Iowa recorded 5,238 traffic crashes, a 4.9% increase from the 4,993 crashes documented in October 2020. The most significant year-over-year change was the increase in crash severity. Total fatalities rose 36% from 25 to 34, and the number of fatal crashes increased from 23 to 33.

5,238

▲ 4.9%was 4,993

Total Crash Events

▲ 36.0%was 25

Persons Killed

1,619

▲ 9.2%was 1,482

Persons Injured

▲ 43.5%was 23

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (34) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (33) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Crash trends in Iowa showed an increase in October 2021 compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes rose by 4.9% from 4,993 to 5,238. This increase was accompanied by a more substantial rise in harm, with total injuries climbing 9.2% from 1,482 to 1,619 and fatalities increasing by 36% from 25 to 34.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 3→0.0%

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Motorists Killed

Prior: 22↑40.9%

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 44↓-13.6%

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 11↑136.4%

1,552

Motorists Injured

Prior: 1,421↑9.2%

Other Injured

Prior: 6↓-50.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The primary temporal patterns of crashes remained consistent year-over-year. Friday was the peak day for crashes in both October 2020 (943 crashes) and October 2021 (1,028 crashes). The 3 p.m. hour was also the peak time for collisions in both periods. A notable shift occurred for crashes on Mondays, which saw a decrease from 785 incidents in the prior period to 696 in the current period.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

Crash severity worsened in October 2021 compared to the previous year. The number of fatal crashes increased from 23 to 33, and the corresponding fatal crash rate rose from 0.46 to 0.63 per 100 crashes. Serious injury crashes also grew in both count (from 91 to 126) and proportion (from 1.8% to 2.4% of all crashes). In contrast, the proportion of crashes resulting in minor injuries decreased from 9.7% to 8.5%.

Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 33 fatal crash events resulted in 34 persons killed.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal33fatal crashes0.6%

↑43.5%prior 23

Serious Injury126serious injury crashes2.4%

↑38.5%prior 91

Minor Injury447minor injury crashes8.5%

↓-7.6%prior 484

Possible Injury833possible injury crashes15.9%

↑10.5%prior 754

No Injury3,799no injury crashes72.5%

↑4.3%prior 3,641

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Collisions involving an animal remained the top contributing factor in both periods, with counts increasing slightly from 1,004 to 1,025. The most significant change was in crashes attributed to 'Followed too close,' which increased by 28.4% in count from 429 to 551 incidents, securing its rank as the second leading cause. Conversely, crashes involving 'Lost Control' saw a 17.7% decrease in count from 266 to 219, while 'FTYROW: From stop sign' incidents rose from 231 to 261.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal1,025 (19.6%)↑2.1%prior 1,004

Followed too close551 (10.5%)↑28.4%prior 429

Other (explain in narrative): Other312 (6%)↑13.5%prior 275

Ran off road - left277 (5.3%)↓-3.1%prior 286

FTYROW: From stop sign261 (5%)↑13.0%prior 231

Lost Control219 (4.2%)↓-17.7%prior 266

FTYROW: Making left turn216 (4.1%)↑9.1%prior 198

Ran Stop Sign160 (3.1%)↑3.9%prior 154

Operating vehicle in an reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner152 (2.9%)↑18.8%prior 128

Ran Traffic Signal150 (2.9%)↓-6.3%prior 160

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

While the proportion of crashes in daylight was stable, there was a significant shift in weather-related incidents. Crashes occurring in rain more than doubled from 223 to 535, and the share of crashes on wet roads increased from 10.1% to 15.3% of all crashes. Conversely, incidents on snow or ice, which accounted for 273 crashes in October 2020, were nearly absent in October 2021, with only one such crash recorded.

Weather

Clear2,969 (67.4%)

↑4.9%prior 2,831

Cloudy853 (19.4%)

↑6.5%prior 801

Rain535 (12.2%)

↑139.9%prior 223

Fog, smoke, smog19 (0.4%)

↓-13.6%prior 22

Freezing rain/drizzle14 (0.3%)

↓-74.1%prior 54

Other (explain in narrative)6 (0.1%)

Severe Winds4 (0.1%)

↓-42.9%prior 7

Sleet, hail1 (0.0%)

Blowing sand, soil, dirt1 (0.0%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight2,810 (63.7%)

↑8.3%prior 2,594

Dark - roadway lighted757 (17.2%)

↑3.8%prior 729

Dark - roadway not lighted598 (13.6%)

↓-7.9%prior 649

Dusk117 (2.7%)

↑31.5%prior 89

Dawn101 (2.3%)

↓-9.8%prior 112

Dark - unknown roadway lighting27 (0.6%)

↑68.8%prior 16

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry3,481 (79.1%)

↑7.1%prior 3,250

Wet800 (18.2%)

↑58.7%prior 504

Gravel107 (2.4%)

↓-7.0%prior 115

Other (explain in narrative)7 (0.2%)

Mud, dirt5 (0.1%)

→0.0%prior 5

Sand1 (0.0%)

Ice/frost1 (0.0%)

↓-99.3%prior 142

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The makes of vehicles involved in crashes showed little change, with Ford and Chevrolet models being the most frequently involved in both October 2020 and October 2021. The age distribution of persons involved also remained largely consistent, with the 26-34 age group representing the largest cohort in both periods. The total number of persons involved in crashes decreased from 11,201 to 9,918 year-over-year.

Top Vehicle Makes (8,837 vehicles)

FORD1,410 (16%)

↑8.5%prior 1,300

CHEV1,008 (11.4%)

↑10.2%prior 915

CHEVROLET726 (8.2%)

↓-1.5%prior 737

TOYT359 (4.1%)

↑22.9%prior 292

DODG306 (3.5%)

↑13.8%prior 269

GMC294 (3.3%)

↑2.8%prior 286

HOND293 (3.3%)

↑32.6%prior 221

JEEP272 (3.1%)

↓-15.0%prior 320

NR253 (2.9%)

↑16.1%prior 218

TOYOTA251 (2.8%)

↑17.8%prior 213

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Vehicle unit records

1,252 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (6,054 persons with recorded sex)

Male3,471 (57.3%)

↓-17.7%prior 4,217

Female2,583 (42.7%)

↓-17.9%prior 3,147

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · 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: 2021-10-01 through 2021-10-31
Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2021-10-01 through 2021-10-31 (31 days)
Geographic scope: iowa, IA
Total crash records analyzed: 5,238
Total persons involved: 9,918
Total vehicles involved: 8,837

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: October 2021." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/october-2021-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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5,238 CRASHES INIOWA, IAOCTOBER 2021