ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · IOWA, IA · 2023
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/2023-annual-report
Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis
343 CRASHES IN
IOWA, IA
2023
In 2023, Winneshiek County recorded 343 total crashes, a 9.7% decrease from the 380 crashes reported in 2022. While overall collisions and injuries declined, the number of fatalities more than doubled, increasing from 2 in the prior year to 5 in the current year. Crashes involving animals, while still the top contributing factor, saw a significant count reduction from 162 to 119 incidents.
343
▼ -9.7%was 380
Total Crash Events
5
▲ 150.0%was 2
Persons Killed
97
▼ -19.2%was 120
Persons Injured
3
▲ 50.0%was 2
Fatal Crash Events
Note: "Persons Killed" (5) 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 · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
Traffic crashes in Winneshiek County showed a downward trend, decreasing by 9.7% from 380 incidents in 2022 to 343 in 2023. This overall reduction was also reflected in the number of people injured, which fell by 19.2% from 120 to 97. However, fatalities more than doubled, rising from 2 to 5 over the same period.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
1
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
4
Motorists Killed
1
Pedestrians Injured
1
Cyclists Injured
95
Motorists Injured
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The timing of crashes shifted between the two periods. In 2023, Friday was the most frequent day for crashes with 58 incidents, a change from Tuesday (63 crashes) in 2022. The peak hour also moved from 9 p.m. in the prior year (30 crashes) to the 5 p.m. hour in the current year, which recorded 39 crashes.
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
While total crashes decreased, the severity of outcomes worsened in some respects. The number of fatal crashes increased from 2 to 3, and the fatal crash rate rose from 0.53 to 0.87 per 100 crashes. Conversely, crashes involving injuries saw a reduction; serious injury crashes fell by half from 16 to 8, and their share of all crashes dropped from 4.2% to 2.3%. The proportion of no-injury crashes slightly increased from 74.5% to 76.4% of all incidents.
Severity is per crash event (most severe injury). 3 fatal crash events resulted in 5 persons killed.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
Collisions involving an animal remained the leading contributing factor in both years, though the count of such incidents decreased by 26.5% from 162 in 2022 to 119 in 2023. 'Lost Control' held its position as the second most common factor, with its count increasing from 30 to 35 crashes. 'Driving too fast for conditions' was the third-ranked factor in both periods, with its count changing minimally from 23 to 21 incidents.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crash conditions remained largely consistent year-over-year, with most incidents in both periods occurring in daylight and on dry roads. The number of crashes on dry roads increased from 148 to 167, while incidents on snow-covered roads fell from 33 to 21. Crashes in unlit, dark conditions saw an increase from 50 to 58 incidents, even as total daylight crashes decreased from 149 to 138.
Weather
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The makes of vehicles involved in crashes were similar across both years, with Ford and Chevrolet variants being the most common in both 2022 and 2023. The number of Fords involved decreased slightly from 95 to 91. There was a noticeable shift in the age demographics of individuals involved in crashes; the 26-34 age group saw its involvement decrease from 133 people to 100. In 2023, the 55-64 age group was the most frequently involved demographic with 113 individuals.
Top Vehicle Makes (477 vehicles)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · Vehicle unit records
64 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.
Sex Distribution (438 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS Open Data · 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 · 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: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31
- Report generated: September 9, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2023-01-01 through 2023-12-31 (365 days)
- Geographic scope: iowa, IA
- Total crash records analyzed: 343
- Total persons involved: 715
- Total vehicles involved: 477
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: 2023." Published September 9, 2026. Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31. Data source: Iowa Crash Data, ArcGIS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/iowa/statewide/2023-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
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Iowa Crash Data · ArcGIS
Period: 2023-01-01 – 2023-12-31
Generated: September 9, 2026 · All rights reserved