Thursday, August 30, 2012

BROWNSVILLE SAFEST DRIVING CITY IN TEXAS... REALLY?


(You're coming up to an intersection with a  side street on International Blvd. and you can just tell that the car with yellow Tamaulipas license plates does not want to stop and may well dart out in front of you hoping you will fear a collision and stop and let him go first even though you have the right-of-way. You have grown tired of the game and play chicken and he bumps you lightly, hardly enough to make a dent. Both of you get out, He tries to place the blame on you. You argue you had the derecho de transito and he shrugs and hands you a $50 bill and says you're even. He has no insurance so he has to fork out something to keep from getting a $375 traffic citation. He probably has no license, another $150. He cannot afford any trouble that will keep him from his daily hustle on the U.S. side. You don't have the time to haggle in the midday heat and take the bill. Both go your merry ways. No report. No mess. No statistic. This scene is played out almost daily on Brownsville streets. What what does Allstate know?)

Brownsville once again tops the list as the safest driving city in Texas, according to the eighth annual “Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report” released by Allstate Insurance Company. The report, based on Allstate claims data, ranks America’s 200 largest cities in terms of car collision frequency to identify which cities have the safest drivers.
Brownsville ranked 25th nationwide, coming in ahead of last year’s top city in Texas, Laredo, which maintained its position at 28. Prior to 2011, Brownsville held the top spot for four straight years.
According to the report, the average driver in Brownsville will experience an auto collision every 11.4 years, compared to a national average of 10.0 years. Other Texas cities beating the national average include Laredo, McAllen, Amarillo and Lubbock.
This year’s top honor of “America’s Safest Driving City” is Sioux Falls, S.D., the fifth time in the history of the report that the city has held the top spot. According to the report, the average driver in Sioux Falls will experience an auto collision every 13.8 years, which is 27.6 percent less likely than the national average of 10 years.
Car crash fatalities are at the lowest level they’ve been since 1949, but still average more than 32,000 every year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
For the past eight years, Allstate actuaries have conducted an in-depth analysis of company claims data to determine the likelihood drivers in America’s 200 largest cities will experience a vehicle collision compared to the national average. Internal property damage reported claims were analyzed over a two-year period (from January 2009 to December 2010) to ensure the findings would not be impacted by external influences such as weather or road construction.
A weighted average of the two-year numbers determined the annual percentages. The report defines an auto crash as any collision resulting in a property damage claim. Allstate’s auto policies represent about 10 percent of all U.S. auto policies, making this report a realistic snapshot of what’s happening on America’s roadways.
Texas cities that appear in the report are ranked as follows:
City & Overall Country Ranking Collision Likelihood Compared to National Average Average Years Between Collisions
25.  Brownsville 12.1% less likely 11.4
28.  Laredo 11.5% less likely 11.3
34.  McAllen 9.8% less likely 11.3
52.  Amarillo 2.1% less likely 10.2
61.  Lubbock 0.6% less likely 10.1
64.  Corpus Christi 0.5% more likely 10.0
84.  El Paso 3.7% more likely 9.6
93.  Waco 6.1% more likely 9.4
125.  Pasadena 14.5% more likely 8.7
130.  McKinney 15.7% more likely 8.6
132.  Killeen 16.0% more likely 8.6
138.  Fort Worth 17.7% more likely 8.5
141.  San Antonio 20.4% more likely 8.3
149.  Austin 23.9% more likely 8.1

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