Allstate Study Ranks Buffalo As Less Safe for Accidents: Report Aims to Uplift Local Driving Habits

Wednesday, Jul 15,2009, 11:26:50 AM Click:

Buffalo drivers are more likely to suffer an accident in other cities of the State of New York or other parts of the country, on average, but not as if New York City or Yonkers, according to a new study of the insurer Allstate Corp.

The study revealed that the average driver Buffalo suffer a collision of car every 8.5 years, which makes drivers 17.5 percent more likely to suffer an accident than the national average. Nationwide, the average driver has an accident every 10 years, according to Allstate.

That ranked Buffalo 126th in driving safety out of the 197 largest U. S. cities served by Allstate. By contrast, Rochester drivers have an accident every 9.4 years, while in Syracuse it's every 9.8 years. And while Rochester and Syracuse drivers got better, Buffalo drivers got worse, with accidents occurring more often than in 2005.

However, Buffalo is the third-best Northeastern city out of 15 metropolitan areas. Syracuse was first, followed by Buffalo and then Pittsburgh. Hartford, Conn., was last in the Northeast, and ranked 190 nationwide.

"We don't want drivers in Buffalo to be discouraged by their ranking," said Allstate spokeswoman Krista Conte. "Instead, we want the report to challenge drivers in Buffalo to make positive changes to their driving habits that will in turn make the city a safer place to live, work and raise families."

The fifth annual "Allstate America's Best Drivers Report" ranks the cities based on car collision frequency. The company's actuaries analyzed company claims data over a two year period from January 2006 to December 2007, to ensure external factors like weather or road construction

didn't affect the results, and then computed a weighted average. The data reflects where drivers live, not where the crashes occurred.

The nation's "safest" city, based on the data, is Sioux Falls, S. D., where crashes occur every 13.5 years, and drivers are 26.1 percent less likely to be in a crash than the average driver nationally. That was followed by Fort Collins, Colo.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Knoxville, Tenn.

Drivers in large cities with populations over 1 million are more likely to experience collisions. Phoenix was the safest of those who, with all collisions of 9.2 years, followed by San Diego and New York. However, Philadelphia is the most dangerous city, with accidents every 6-4 years and 57.1 per cent of drivers more likely than average to have an accident.

Among the 10 most improved cities - more progress than the number of years between accidents - five were in Virginia.

Allstate is the No. 2 auto insurer, which represents approximately 11.3 percent of all motor insurance policies American. At the national level, while car accidents have declined in recent years, fatalities on average about 40,000 per year.