ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · SEPTEMBER 2016
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/september-2016-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
4,589 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
SEPTEMBER 2016
In September 2016, authorities recorded 4,589 total crashes, a 4.3% increase from the 4,402 crashes documented in September 2015. While the total number of injuries decreased by 5.4% from 1,820 to 1,721, the number of fatal crashes rose by 20% from 25 to 30 incidents over the same period.
4,589
▲ 4.2%was 4,402
Total Crash Events
31
▲ 6.9%was 29
Persons Killed
1,721
▼ -5.4%was 1,820
Persons Injured
30
▲ 20.0%was 25
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (31) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (30) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Crash data from September 2016 indicates an upward trend in total collisions compared to the same month in the prior year. Total crashes increased by 4.3%, rising from 4,402 to 4,589. While the number of injuries saw a 5.4% decrease, fatalities increased from 29 to 31 year-over-year.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
3
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
27
Motorists Killed
1
Other Killed
56
Pedestrians Injured
55
Cyclists Injured
1,602
Motorists Injured
8
Other Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · 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 September 2015 and September 2016. The peak day for crashes moved from Wednesday (804 crashes) in the prior year to Friday (906 crashes) in the current period. Similarly, the peak hour for collisions shifted one hour later, from the 3 PM hour in 2015 (391 crashes) to the 4 PM hour in 2016 (398 crashes).
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Year-over-year, the fatal crash rate increased from 0.57 to 0.65 per 100 crashes, with the absolute number of fatal crashes rising from 25 to 30. Despite this, the overall proportion of crashes resulting in any level of injury (serious, minor, or possible) decreased from 33.2% in September 2015 to 30.2% in September 2016. Correspondingly, crashes with no reported injuries increased their share of the total from 66.3% to 69.1%.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 30 fatal crash events resulted in 31 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
'Followed too close' remained the top contributing factor, with its count increasing by 7.5% from 576 to 619 crashes. Crashes involving an animal, the second-ranked factor, also saw an 11.4% increase in count from 402 to 448. While the top five factors remained largely consistent in ranking, crashes attributed to 'Ran Traffic Signal' increased by 27.4% in count, rising from 124 to 158 incidents.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
The distribution of crashes by lighting and road surface conditions remained stable year-over-year, with approximately 80% of crashes in both periods occurring on dry roads and about 69-70% happening in daylight. However, there was a shift in reported weather conditions. The proportion of crashes occurring in clear weather decreased from 71.3% in September 2015 to 65.3% in September 2016, while crashes in cloudy conditions increased their share from 13.6% to 19.3% of the total.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The top vehicle makes involved in crashes remained consistent, with Ford and Chevrolet variants leading in both periods; Ford was the top make in September 2016 with 1,285 vehicles involved, up from 1,243 in the prior year. An analysis of persons involved shows a decrease in the proportion of younger individuals; the 16-20 age group accounted for 14.7% of persons in the current period, down from a 16.2% share in the prior year. Similarly, the 21-25 age group's share fell from 12.7% to 11.1%.
Top Vehicle Makes (8,261 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · Vehicle unit records
953 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (5,755 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30 · 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: 2016-09-01 through 2016-09-30
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2016-09-01 through 2016-09-30 (30 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 4,589
- Total persons involved: 8,731
- Total vehicles involved: 8,261
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: September 2016." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-09-01 to 2016-09-30. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/september-2016-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: 2016-09-01 – 2016-09-30
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved