(NATIONAL) – A study that looked at the most dangerous places to drive in the nation ranked one Southern Colorado city in the top 25, and another city in the Centennial State in the top five.
The study, conducted by ConsumerAffairs using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, ranked Memphis and Knoxville, Tennessee, as the first- and second-most dangerous cities in terms of fatal car crashes. Rounding out the top five are Waterbury, Connecticut; Aurora, Colorado; and Tucson, Arizona, according to ConsumerAffairs’ findings.
The study ranked Pueblo, Colorado at number 24. The top 25 cities with the “worst drivers” in terms of fatal crashes, according to ConsumerAffairs’ analysis, are listed below:
Memphis, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Waterbury, Connecticut
Aurora, Colorado
Tucson, Arizona
Kansas City, Missouri
San Bernardino, California
Billings, Montana
Miami Gardens, Florida
Charleston, South Carolina
Murrieta, California
Mobile, Alabama
North Charleston, South Carolina
Lubbock, Texas
Birmingham, Alabama
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Detroit, Michigan
Odessa, Texas
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Dallas, Texas
Pomona, California
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Goodyear, Arizona
Pueblo, Colorado
Tempe, Arizona
ConsumerAffairs based its ranking on fatal car crashes only, which they divided into four categories: fatalities involving DUI offenses, fatalities involving positive blood-alcohol content tests, fatalities involving speeding, and fatalities involving “bad driving,” which included crashes caused by inexperience, disobeying traffic signs, or aggressive maneuvers.
Each of the 327 cities included in the ranking was given a score in each category (along with a score for overall traffic deaths per capita), and those scores were combined to create the final list. The full study can be found here.
A representative for ConsumerAffairs was not immediately available to discuss the methodology further or confirm when the data used in the study was collected. (ConsumerAffairs said it had used the “most recent” crash figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.) In many cases, a high-ranking city also had fewer overall fatalities than some cities that ranked lower, due to the scoring assigned to each category by ConsumerAffairs.
Joe Young, a representative for the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, also added that the findings don’t necessarily indicate that a city has bad drivers, but possibly bad roads or enforcement.
“Dangerous roads aren’t just a result of the people driving them, but also policies and designs that allow for or encourage those behaviors,” Young said, in a statement published at ConsumerAffairs. “Issues with speeding, for example, may point to roadway designs or speed limits that encourage higher speeds, or lack of enforcement of the speed limits that do exist.”
These latest rankings from ConsumerAffairs mark the third year the outlet has released its “worst drivers” study.
