Who has the worst drivers? Allstate releases safety rankings

Fort Collins, Colorado: Consistently named one of the top places to live in the country, Fort Collins is also known for Colorado State University, an annual marathon and a popular yearly brewer’s festival. And now, according to just-released safety rankings, it’s also where you’ll find the nation’s safest drivers.

Insurance company Allstate has released its annual safety rankings of where the country’s most reliable, and most dangerous, drivers are located, reports Forbes. Fort Collins boasts the safest, with an average of 14.2 years between accidents, and a traffic incident rate nearly 30 percent less than the national average. Worcester, Massachusetts, hosts the country’s worst drivers, who are on average involved in a car accident every 4.3 years, and are nearly 135 percent more likely to crash than the average U.S. driver. The survey found that the safest cities are located in the Heartland, whereas the Northeast has the most accident-prone drivers.

The Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report calculated property damage collision frequency of Allstate-insured drivers over 2011 to 2012, and evaluates the 200 biggest cities in the country. The report isn’t used to determine insurance rates, but is “solely to boost the country’s discussion about safe driving and to increase awareness of the importance of being safe and attentive behind the wheel,” according to the company.

Allstate has been compiling yearly reports for the last 10 years. For the first time, this year the report also includes information on other safety-influencing factors, such as population, rain and snowfall, and city density. The survey sourced population and density data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and rain and snowfall data from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

“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,” Mike Roche, Allstate’s executive vice president of claims, tells Forbes. “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.”

Fort Collins was ranked the safest city last year as well. Brownsville, Texas, moved up to the #2 safest spot, an improvement over its 2013 ranking (it ranked fourth that year), with 14.2 years between accidents. Boise, Idaho dropped from its spot at #2 in 2013 to third place this year. The second-worst city this year was Boston, Massachusetts, followed by Washington, D.C.; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Providence, Rhode Island. (Of those cities, only Washington, DC, took home “honors” last year, ranking 194th of 200 cities in 2013.)

Did your city make the cut? The Top 10 lists for best and worst driver safety cities appear below:

10 Cities with the Safest Drivers

1. Fort Collins, CO: 14.2 years between accidents, 29.6% less likely to be in an accident.
2. Brownsville, TX: 14.2 years between accidents, 29.5% less likely to be in an accident.
3. Boise, ID: 14.0 years between accidents, 28.4% less likely to be in an accident.
4. Kansas City, MO: 12.9 years between accidents, 22.4% less likely to be in an accident.
5. Huntsville, AL: 12.6 years between accidents, 20.3% less likely to be in an accident.
6. Montgomery, AL: 12.4 years between accidents, 19.4% less likely to be in an accident.
7. Visalia, CA: 12.4 years between accidents, 19.1% less likely to be in an accident.
8. Laredo, TX: 12.2 years between accidents, 18.3% less likely to be in an accident.
9. Madison, WI: 12.2 years between accidents, 17.8% less likely to be in an accident.
10. Olathe, KS: 12.1 years between accidents, 17.5% less likely to be in an accident.

Ten Cities with the Worst Drivers:

1. Worcester, MA: 4.3 years between accidents, 134.8% more likely to be in an accident.
2. Boston, MA: 4.4 years between accidents, 129.9% more likely to be in an accident.
3. Washington, DC: 5.1 years between accidents, 97.3% more likely to be in an accident.
4. Springfield, MA: 5.4 years between accidents, 85.8% more likely to be in an accident.
5. Providence, RI: 5.4 years between accidents, 85.1% more likely to be in an accident.
6. Baltimore, MD: 5.4 years between accidents, 84.9% more likely to be in an accident.
7. Glendale, CA: 5.8 years between accidents, 72.6% more likely to be in an accident.
8. Alexandria, VA: 5.9 years between accidents, 68.2% more likely to be in an accident.
9. Philadelphia, PA: 6.2 years between accidents, 61.2% more likely to be in an accident.
10. New Haven, CT: 6.3 years between accidents, 59.1% more likely to be in an accident.