Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

699 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2021

All metrics benchmarked against2020

In Warren County, total traffic crashes increased from 649 in 2020 to 699 in 2021, a rise of approximately 7.7%. Despite the increase in overall collisions, the number of fatalities saw a significant decrease, dropping from 8 in the prior period to 3 in the current period.

699

▲ 7.7%was 649

Total Crash Events

3

▼ -62.5%was 8

Persons Killed

232

▲ 21.5%was 191

Persons Injured

3

▼ -62.5%was 8

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (3) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (3) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall traffic collisions in Warren County showed an upward trend, increasing by 7.7% from 649 in 2020 to 699 in 2021. This included a 21.5% rise in total injuries from 191 to 232. However, the number of fatalities decreased from 8 to 3 year-over-year.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

1

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 0→%

0

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

2

Motorists Killed

Prior: 8↓-75.0%

0

Other Killed

Prior: 0→0.0%

2

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 1↑100.0%

3

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 1↑200.0%

226

Motorists Injured

Prior: 188↑20.2%

1

Other Injured

Prior: 1→0.0%

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed some shifts between the two periods. While Friday remained the peak day for crashes in both 2020 and 2021 with an identical count of 115, the peak hour changed significantly. In 2021, the highest volume of crashes occurred at 7 a.m. with 62 incidents, shifting from the 5 p.m. peak hour observed in 2020, which had 53 incidents.

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

While total crashes increased, the severity profile shifted year-over-year. The number of fatal crashes decreased from 8 in 2020 to 3 in 2021, with the corresponding fatal crash rate dropping from 1.23% to 0.43%. Conversely, crashes involving injuries increased, with serious injury crashes rising from 15 to 22 and possible injury crashes increasing from 83 to 99.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal3fatal crashes0.4%
↓-62.5%prior 8
Serious Injury22serious injury crashes3.1%
↑46.7%prior 15
Minor Injury68minor injury crashes9.7%
↑7.9%prior 63
Possible Injury99possible injury crashes14.2%
↑19.3%prior 83
No Injury507no injury crashes72.5%
↑5.6%prior 480

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Top Contributing Factors

Collisions involving an animal remained the top contributing factor in both periods, though the count decreased slightly from 149 in 2020 to 144 in 2021. 'Lost Control' was the second-most cited factor in both years, also with a small decrease from 55 to 53 crashes. Notably, crashes attributed to 'Followed too close' increased from a count of 41 to 49, becoming the third-leading factor in 2021, while 'Failure to yield from a stop sign' crashes decreased from 42 to 34.

Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause

Animal144 (20.6%)↓-3.4%prior 149
Lost Control53 (7.6%)↓-3.6%prior 55
Followed too close49 (7%)↑19.5%prior 41
Ran off road - left38 (5.4%)↑65.2%prior 23
Other (explain in narrative): Other38 (5.4%)↑35.7%prior 28
Ran off road - straight34 (4.9%)↑30.8%prior 26
FTYROW: From stop sign34 (4.9%)↓-19.0%prior 42
FTYROW: Making left turn32 (4.6%)→0.0%prior 32
Driving too fast for conditions29 (4.1%)↓-6.5%prior 31
Operating vehicle in an reckless, erratic, careless, negligent manner25 (3.6%)↑47.1%prior 17

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash

Road & Environmental Conditions

The conditions under which crashes occurred remained largely consistent year-over-year. Crashes in clear weather and daylight conditions continued to make up the majority, with their proportions remaining stable at approximately 57% and 56% respectively. The number of crashes on adverse road surfaces like wet, snow, or ice increased from 112 to 120, though as a percentage of total crashes, this remained steady at about 17%.

Weather

Clear395 (67.9%)
↑6.8%prior 370
Cloudy114 (19.6%)
↑10.7%prior 103
Rain33 (5.7%)
↓-10.8%prior 37
Snow22 (3.8%)
↑37.5%prior 16
Blowing Snow7 (1.2%)
Freezing rain/drizzle6 (1.0%)
↓-50.0%prior 12
Fog, smoke, smog3 (0.5%)
Other (explain in narrative)1 (0.2%)
Severe Winds1 (0.2%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight390 (66.4%)
↑7.7%prior 362
Dark - roadway not lighted106 (18.1%)
↑7.1%prior 99
Dark - roadway lighted45 (7.7%)
↓-19.6%prior 56
Dusk26 (4.4%)
↑44.4%prior 18
Dawn17 (2.9%)
↓-5.6%prior 18
Dark - unknown roadway lighting3 (0.5%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry450 (76.3%)
↑9.2%prior 412
Wet61 (10.3%)
↓-1.6%prior 62
Snow28 (4.7%)
↑64.7%prior 17
Ice/frost28 (4.7%)
↑3.7%prior 27
Gravel18 (3.1%)
↓-14.3%prior 21
Slush3 (0.5%)
↓-50.0%prior 6
Mud, dirt1 (0.2%)
Sand1 (0.2%)

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Road surface condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

Ford and Chevrolet vehicles were the most frequently involved in crashes in both periods, with their counts increasing from 176 to 212 and 206 to 237 (combined 'CHEV' and 'CHEVROLET' makes) respectively. An analysis of persons involved shows a notable increase in the 16-20 age group, which grew from 177 individuals in 2020 to 205 in 2021. Conversely, the number of individuals aged 65 and older involved in crashes decreased from 151 to 141.

Top Vehicle Makes (1,107 vehicles)

1
FORD212 (19.2%)
↑20.5%prior 176
2
CHEV161 (14.5%)
↑9.5%prior 147
3
CHEVROLET76 (6.9%)
↑28.8%prior 59
4
TOYT50 (4.5%)
↓-7.4%prior 54
5
DODG45 (4.1%)
↓-4.3%prior 47
6
GMC36 (3.3%)
↑71.4%prior 21
7
NISS34 (3.1%)
↓-8.1%prior 37
8
JEEP33 (3%)
↓-10.8%prior 37
9
KIA31 (2.8%)
↑106.7%prior 15
10
HOND28 (2.5%)
↑27.3%prior 22

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

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

Sex Distribution (911 persons with recorded sex)

Male534 (58.6%)
↓-0.6%prior 537
Female377 (41.4%)
↑1.1%prior 373

Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 · 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: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31
  • Report generated: September 9, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2021-01-01 through 2021-12-31 (365 days)
  • Geographic scope: iowa, IA
  • Total crash records analyzed: 699
  • Total persons involved: 1,389
  • Total vehicles involved: 1,107

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: 2021." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2021-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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