Most people who live in an urban area such as Boston would probably say they live in the city with the worst drivers in America. If you lived in Boston and gave that answer, you would be correct, according to a recent news feature from Yahoo Finance. The claim is based upon report put out every year by the insurance industry, and it includes the number of accidents and the number of drunk driving accidents in proportion to the population and the number of drivers.
The report, which is compiled by the insurance industry, is supposed to showcase the safest cities to drive in America, and while there any many cities at the top of the list, one city has to be at the bottom for being the most dangerous and in 2016, that “honor” falls on the city of Boston.
As part of the calculation, the actuaries at Allstate look at a variety of factors, including the number of infractions for speeding, stop sign violations, failure to yield violations, and well as a number of other moving violations. They also look at the number of accidents and how often the average driver will be involved in a car accident. In Boston, a driver will get into at least one car accident every 3.7 years. This is nearly 200 percent higher than the national average.
One of the major reasons that are so many more per capita motor vehicle accidents is that that are more incidents of drunk driving than in many other cities, according to data. It has been well established that in Boston, at least one third of all car accidents are drunk driving accidents.
While the Boston drunk driving accidents are a serious concern and result in many cases of serious personal injury or death each year, the report highlighted some alarming trends across the nation. One thing that is of concern to safety experts and the insurance companies is that drivers in the U.S. on average wear a seatbelt while seated in the front seat far less often than drivers in other countries in the developed world. There also appears to be a similar issue with parents in the U.S. putting their child in a car safety seat until an age when they can sit in the rear seat and use the vehicle’s seatbelt.
Another issue that caused concern as result of the annual report was the increase in auto fatalities in areas in which the speed limit has been increased. For many years there was a federal mandate that the speed limit be not higher than 55 miles per hour. However, this was later increased to 65 miles per hour, and now it is as high as 85 miles per hour in some western states. In the past two decades since the speed limits have been raised, researchers believe that there have been at least 33,000 more deaths each year in car accidents that would not have occurred had the speed limit not been increased.
If you or someone you love has been injured a Boston drunk driving accident, call for a free and confidential appointment at (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
The Cities With The Worst Drivers In The U.S., July 8, 2016, Yahoo Finance, By Jim Gorzelany
More Blog Entries:
Report: Drunk Driving Crash at Daytona International Speedway, April 9, 2016, Boston DUI Accident Lawyer Blog