Though automobiles have drastically updated their safety features over the past few decades, there are still more than 5 million vehicle crashes a year in the United States. While that number may seem a bit staggering, rest assured that roughly 3 million of these simply caused property damage, and not injury.

In their ninth annual report on traffic accidents, Allstate Insurance analyzed claims in 195 cities filed between January 2010 and December 2011 and determined the offs of any given driver suffering an accident. The agency further ranked Fort Collins, Colorado as the city with the best drivers. These lucky motorists are 28 percent less likely to be involved in a car crash than that of the national average. The following list exemplifies the top ten worst cities for automobile accidents in the United States:

  1. Washington, D.C. – with a 109 percent chance of being in an accident
  2. Baltimore – 86 percent chance
  3. Providence, R.I. – 85 percent chance
  4. Hialeah, Fla. – 79 percent chance
  5. Philadelphia – 66 percent chance
  6. Alexandria, Va. – 62 percent
  7. Miami – 59 percent chance
  8. San Francisco, – 54 percent chance
  9. Arlington, Va. – 50 percent chance

This year’s list shows barely any improvement from last year’s, probably due to the fact that factors which make a city more dangerous can take years to develop (and even longer to fix). If you notice that the areas of Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C., have all made the list, you can see the correlation between being the nation’s capital (or a large metropolis) and higher levels of traffic. Despite the strong correlation, here are a few large cities that rank very low on the list:

71. Phoenix – 2.0 percent more likely to be involved in a crash (compared to national average)

127. San Diego – 14.6 percent more likely

141. San Antonio – 22.4 percent

150. Chicago – 25.2 percent

151. Houston – 25.6 percent

170. Dallas – 35.6 percent

172. New York – 37.8 percent

181. Los Angeles – 49.3 percent

189. Philadelphia – 65.9 percent

The Allstate survey found that geographical location seems to have a great deal to do with this data. This being said, cities in the west or Midwest (like Denver or Milwaukee) tend to be the safest, where drivers are allowed plenty of space on freeways and boulevards. It should further be noted that of the 195 cities ranked by Allstate that no major east coast city ranked higher than 37th.

Since automobile manufacturers aim to “develop self-driving cars” within this decade, until this occurs car crashes will remain a national problem. To better educate yourself on your state’s rules of the road and road signs, take one of our comprehensive courses today. We can guarantee that when you do, you will ultimately be shaping yourself into a better, safer driver.