Johnson County followed a statewide trend of decreased traffic-related deaths, dropping from eight driving fatalities in 2024 to one in 2025.
For the first time in 100 years, since the state of Iowa began recording traffic fatalities in 1925, the state saw fewer than 300 deaths in 2025. There were 260 traffic fatalities reported last year, dropping from 357 in 2024 to 260 in 2025 —just one fewer than the 261 fatalities recorded in 1925, according to Iowa Department of Transportation, or DOT, records.
Larry Grant, state safety planner for the Iowa DOT, said the short-term goal was always to be under 300 fatalities in a year.
“This is a really big deal for Iowa,” Grant said. “Just the fact that if this holds the 260 for fatalities for 2025, that will be the lowest ever fatalities that the state of Iowa has had for motor vehicle crashes.”
If the number remains unchanged over the next few months with no new deaths reported from 2025, Iowa will achieve its lowest recorded traffic deaths in history.
While traffic fatalities have gone down, the overall amount of crashes in Johnson County and Iowa have increased. In Johnson County in 2025, the total number of crashes was 2,645. In 2024 the total was 2,513, according to the Iowa Crash Analysis Tool.
“Statewide, the serious injuries were down, along with minor injuries were down, but the total crashes were up. So it just seems like vehicles are safer, and then the crashes happen,” Seth Bean, a public resource officer for the Iowa State Patrol in the Johnson and Linn County area, said.
Bean attributed the rise in crashes to multiple factors, including higher traffic volume and more winter weather conditions in early December.
When coming up with solutions for better road conditions, the DOT works with universities, including the University of Iowa, on a weekly basis, looking at crash data and figuring out what should be focus areas.
“A lot of the universities in cooperation with DOT get that data so we can analyze the roadways in Iowa to see how the vehicles and the drivers are reacting to the roadway. That helps us define, ‘Oh, we need to redesign this type of intersection, or we need to redesign this roadway type,’” Grant said.
Behind the drop in overall traffic fatalities are declines in specific types of crashes, according to state data, with reductions in motorcycle, intersection, and multiple-fatality crashes.
“We reduced motorcycle fatalities on average by about 26 fatalities last year, and that is huge. Motorcycle fatalities in Iowa usually come in at about 60 to the mid-60s fatalities a year, and last year we had 38,” Grant said.
Grant also attributed lower fatalities to Emergency Medical Services, or EMS, and how quickly they have been able to get to crash sites.
“Iowa is a very rural state, but we’ve got some great volunteer services out there — firefighters and EMS — and just getting those folks there sooner and getting that lifesaving care sooner is also reducing fatalities,” Grant said.
In late September 2025, Johnson County EMS opened its fourth location in the county, Iowa City Fire Department 2 on the west side.
Ben Symonds, assistant director of the Johnson County Ambulance Service, said when he first started in 2020, the county had three areas they were responding from, and now the service is up to four, they are able to give a quicker response.
“Time is of the essence, and you want to get them to definitive care as soon as possible, and watching our metrics, I know that we do a great job hitting Johnson County at meeting those metrics and exceeding those metrics,” Symonds said.
Another component to the fatality drop is car technology, Grant said, with newer cars including intuitive features such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, adaptive cruise control, and lane assist.
In addition to changes in crash patterns, Grant said Iowa’s roads have also played a role in the reducing of fatalities.
“The number one crash, especially a fatality crash, in the state of Iowa is a run-off-the-road crash. When we looked at that, and we added, we were [at] about 56 percent of our center line rumbles on our primary two-lane roads. Last year, we increased it to 90 percent. So we really went out and retrofitted a lot of roadways with those rumble strips,” Grant said.
The DOT has also increased the thickness of the lines on roads, adding reflective beads to the paint, and added reflective strips to curves on the road.
In the next few years, Grant expects fatalities to plateau, with numbers not decreasing rapidly until car technology further advances.
“It takes about 10 years to incorporate a safety element within that vehicle. Lane assist started probably 10 years ago, and now you’re just starting to see more and more of the vehicles that have that lane assist,” Grant said. “Most people keep a car between 10 and 20 years, and then they get rid of them. So that old technology goes out the door. We get the newer technology.