How is your driving? Do you have road rage and whip around every car, or do you take your time and make sure to follow every rule in the drivers manual?
With motor vehicle fatality rates on the rise, it’s paramount that motorists take extra precautions on the nation’s highways, especially with the busy Labor Day travel weekend at hand. And statistics suggest if you want to stay safe behind the wheel, stick close to America’s heartland, specifically Kansas City, which has the distinction of being named the top city in Allstate Insurance’s annual Best Drivers Report. The report determined that K.C. motorists are 24.8% less likely than the typical U.S. driver to become involved in a wreck, and manage to spend a leisurely average of 13.3 years between accidents. Other of the safest havens for motorists named in the report include the equally bucolic Brownsville, TX, Boise ID, and Fort Collins, CO.
At the other end of the spectrum, the metro area that’s home to the most dangerous drivers in America is Boston, MA, where motorists are 157.7% more likely than the norm to get in a crash, with an average frequency of one incident every 3.3 years. In fact, of the 10 cities where drivers tend to get in the most wrecks, seven are snuggled away in Northeastern states and the District of Columbia, with the other three situated in traffic-clogged California, including those havens for safe and sane driving, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Still, things may not be as grim as the numbers might indicate. Allstate’s research found that 70 percent of vehicles involved in collisions are considered drivable, which indicates that most claims are the result of relatively minor low-speed (under 35 miles per hour) collisions. Here’s a look at 10 winners and sinners in Allstate’s