Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

649 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2020

All metrics benchmarked against2019

In Warren County, total traffic crashes decreased by 11.1% from 730 in 2019 to 649 in 2020. Despite this overall reduction in collisions, the number of fatalities recorded saw a significant year-over-year increase, rising from one death in 2019 to eight in 2020.

649

▼ -11.1%was 730

Total Crash Events

8

▲ 700.0%was 1

Persons Killed

191

▼ -16.6%was 229

Persons Injured

8

▲ 700.0%was 1

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (8) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (8) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Traffic safety data for Warren County shows a downward trend in the total number of crashes and injuries, but a sharp upward trend in crash severity. While total crashes fell by 11.1% and injuries decreased by 16.6% from 2019 to 2020, the number of fatal crashes increased from one to eight in the same period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

0

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

8

Motorists Killed

Prior: 1↑700.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

1

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 2↓-50.0%

1

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 3↓-66.7%

188

Motorists Injured

Prior: 224↓-16.1%

1

Other Injured

Prior: 0→%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · 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 2019 and 2020. The peak day for crashes moved from Thursday (122 incidents) in the prior year to Friday (115 incidents) in the current year. More significantly, the peak hour for collisions changed from the 7 a.m. morning commute hour in 2019, with 70 crashes, to the 5 p.m. evening commute hour in 2020, with 53 crashes.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While the total number of crashes decreased, their severity profile worsened from 2019 to 2020. The number of fatal crashes rose from one to eight, and the corresponding fatal crash rate increased from 0.14 to 1.23 per 100 crashes. The count of crashes involving serious injuries decreased from 19 to 15, while the overall proportion of crashes resulting in any type of injury remained stable, at 24.0% in 2019 and 24.8% in 2020.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal8fatal crashes1.2%
↑700.0%prior 1
Serious Injury15serious injury crashes2.3%
↓-21.1%prior 19
Minor Injury63minor injury crashes9.7%
↓-3.1%prior 65
Possible Injury83possible injury crashes12.8%
↓-8.8%prior 91
No Injury480no injury crashes74%
↓-13.4%prior 554

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

The leading contributing factors for crashes remained consistent year-over-year, though their counts generally decreased. 'Animal' was the top factor in both 2019 (169 crashes) and 2020 (149 crashes), a count decrease of 11.8%. 'Lost Control' remained the second-most cited factor, with its count falling from 64 to 55. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Driving too fast for conditions' saw a 39.2% drop in count, falling from 51 incidents in 2019 to 31 in 2020.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal149 (23%)↓-11.8%prior 169
Lost Control55 (8.5%)↓-14.1%prior 64
FTYROW: From stop sign42 (6.5%)↓-6.7%prior 45
Followed too close41 (6.3%)↓-16.3%prior 49
FTYROW: Making left turn32 (4.9%)↑68.4%prior 19
Driving too fast for conditions31 (4.8%)↓-39.2%prior 51
Other (explain in narrative): Other28 (4.3%)↓-20.0%prior 35
Ran off road - straight26 (4%)↓-16.1%prior 31
Ran off road - left23 (3.5%)↓-45.2%prior 42
Ran Stop Sign19 (2.9%)↑90.0%prior 10

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

Comparing conditions, a larger share of crashes in 2020 occurred on dry roads and in clear weather than in 2019. Crashes on dry surfaces accounted for 63.5% of the total in 2020, up from 53.6% in 2019. Correspondingly, incidents during adverse winter conditions saw a marked decrease, with crashes on snowy roads falling from 51 to 17 and on icy roads from 50 to 27.

Weather

Clear370 (67.9%)
↑6.0%prior 349
Cloudy103 (18.9%)
↓-28.0%prior 143
Rain37 (6.8%)
↑12.1%prior 33
Snow16 (2.9%)
↓-61.0%prior 41
Freezing rain/drizzle12 (2.2%)
↓-7.7%prior 13
Fog, smoke, smog4 (0.7%)
Blowing Snow2 (0.4%)
↓-81.8%prior 11
Sleet, hail1 (0.2%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight362 (65.2%)
↓-10.0%prior 402
Dark - roadway not lighted99 (17.8%)
→0.0%prior 99
Dark - roadway lighted56 (10.1%)
↑1.8%prior 55
Dawn18 (3.2%)
↓-30.8%prior 26
Dusk18 (3.2%)
↑12.5%prior 16
Dark - unknown roadway lighting2 (0.4%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry412 (75.6%)
↑5.4%prior 391
Wet62 (11.4%)
↓-15.1%prior 73
Ice/frost27 (5.0%)
↓-46.0%prior 50
Gravel21 (3.9%)
↓-8.7%prior 23
Snow17 (3.1%)
↓-66.7%prior 51
Slush6 (1.1%)
↓-14.3%prior 7

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The most common vehicle makes involved in crashes were consistent between the two periods, with Ford and Chevrolet-branded vehicles (listed as 'CHEV' and 'CHEVROLET') ranking at the top in both years, though their total counts declined. The age distribution of persons involved in crashes also remained largely stable. However, the 65+ age group's representation saw a slight proportional increase, accounting for 11.2% of persons in 2020 compared to 10.3% in 2019.

Top Vehicle Makes (982 vehicles)

1
FORD176 (17.9%)
↓-11.1%prior 198
2
CHEV147 (15%)
↓-19.7%prior 183
3
CHEVROLET59 (6%)
↓-14.5%prior 69
4
TOYT54 (5.5%)
↑1.9%prior 53
5
DODG47 (4.8%)
↓-28.8%prior 66
6
JEEP37 (3.8%)
↓-30.2%prior 53
7
NISS37 (3.8%)
↑42.3%prior 26
8
DODGE30 (3.1%)
↓-3.2%prior 31
9
HOND22 (2.2%)
↓-38.9%prior 36
10
TOYOTA21 (2.1%)
↑23.5%prior 17

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (910 persons with recorded sex)

Male537 (59.0%)
↓-7.6%prior 581
Female373 (41.0%)
↓-19.1%prior 461

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31 · 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: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2020-01-01 through 2020-12-31 (366 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 649
  • Total persons involved: 1,349
  • Total vehicles involved: 982

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: 2020." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2020-annual-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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