Cities With the Most and Least Accident-Prone Drivers

Those for whom auto safety is a priority would be advised not only to choose a model that achieves top scores in crash-test ratings and comes with a full array of the latest accident avoidance features, but to also pack up the family and move to Ft. Collins, Colo., which boasts the safest motorists in the nation. Those living in Ft. Collins were found to go an average of 14.2 years between accidents, with traffic incidents 29.6 less likely to occur than the national average of once every 10 years. That’s according to the annual America’s Best Driver’s Report conducted by Allstate Insurance Co. in Northbrook, Ill. On the other hand, Worcester, Mass., can lay claim to having the worst drivers in America. Motorists there tend to become involved in an auto accident once every 4.3 years, which makes them 134.8 percent more likely to crash their cars than the average American any time they hit the road. Apparently traditional middle-American values come into play here: Of the ten cities having the statistically safest motorists, most tend to be located in the nation’s heartland, with Alabama (Huntsville and Montgomery) and Texas (Brownsville and Laredo) each placing two cities among the best drivers list. On the other hand, all but one of the 10 cities having the most accident-afflicted motorists are located in the Northeast, with Boston and Washington, D.C. - not coincidentally two cities that perennially place at or near the top of America’s worst-traffic lists - rounding out the top three. We’re featuring top-10 lists of cities with the best and worst drivers in the accompanying box. Fortunately not all of these collisions tend to result in fatalities or serious injuries. Allstate’s stats indicate that 70 percent of vehicles involved in collisions are subsequently drivable, which would indicate they occur at lower speeds (under 35 mph). Still, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 33,500 fatalities occur on U.S. roadways each year, so a certain level of caution is still required whenever anyone, no matter where they live, gets behind the wheel. The latest Best Drivers Report also considers how cities rank when various factors are considered. For example, the safest metropolitan area relative to its population size is Kansas City, Mo., while the safest in correlation to city density is the aforementioned Fort Collins and the safest with regard to rain/snowfall is Brownsville, Texas. By those same measures the worst drivers can be found living in, that’s right, Worchester, Mass., which sits firmly at the top (or should we say bottom) of each list. Complete data for all 50 states can be found at www.allstate.com. “A big part of our job at Allstate is to help our customers prevent bad things from happening. With that in mind, our actuaries reviewed millions of records to develop this year’s report which presents new data to equip them with better driving awareness tools,” says Mike Roche, Allstate’s executive vice president of claims. “Allstate is showing drivers that factors like population, a city’s density and precipitation may contribute to their driving safety to reveal important lessons on the road.” [SIDEBAR] U.S. Cities with the Best Drivers 1. Ft. Collins, Colorado 2. Brownsville, Texas 3. Boise, Idaho 4. Kansas City, Missouri 5. Huntsville, Alabama 6. Montgomery, Alabama 7. Visalia, California 8. Laredo, Texas 9. Madison, Wisconsin 10. Olathe, Kansas U.S. Cities with the Worst Drivers 1. Worcester, Massachusetts 2. Boston, Massachusetts 3. Washington, D.C. 4. Springfield, Massachusetts 5. Providence, Rhode Island 6. Baltimore, Maryland 7. Glendale, California 8. Alexandria, Virginia 9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 10. New Haven, Connecticut Note: Rankings are based on the frequency of property collision claims made by Allstate-insured drivers in the nation’s 200 largest cities from 2011-2012. Source: Allstate Insurance Co. [SIDEBAR]