Report: Las Vegas drivers rank among nation’s worst

By Kyle B. Hansen

Thursday, July 9, 2009 | 1:59 a.m.

If you’ve ever thought Las Vegas drivers are worse than their counterparts in many other parts of the country, you were right.

Las Vegas came in at No. 153 out of 200 cities on Allstate’s annual America’s Best Drivers Report.

The insurance company analyzed claims in the 200 largest cities in the nation and found that Las Vegas drivers are 28.7 percent more likely to have a collision than the average driver nationwide.

The average driver in Las Vegas has a collision every 7.8 years, the report says.

Elsewhere in the state, Reno placed at the top of the list, No. 11, with drivers 14 percent less likely to have a collision. Drivers there average an accident every 11.6 years.

Henderson and North Las Vegas also came in far behind Reno.

Henderson, where collisions average one every 8.8 years, came in at No. 109 with drivers 13.3 percent more likely to have a collision than the national average. In North Las Vegas, drivers are 23.5 more likely to have a collision. Drivers there average 8.1 years between collisions.

Drivers in other western cities with similar population sizes as Las Vegas are less likely to have a collision than drivers here, with Tucson, El Paso, Texas, and Denver all ranked in the top 50.

“We don’t want drivers in Las Vegas to be discouraged by their ranking,” said Denis Bailey, field vice president of Allstate’s Southwest Region in a press release. “Instead, we want the report to challenge drivers in Las Vegas 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 safest cities in this years report were Sioux Falls, S.D., Fort Collins, Colo., and Chattanooga, Tenn.

At the bottom of the list were Glendale, Calif., Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

This is the fifth year Allstate has analyzed company claim data to create the report. The company defined an auto crash as any collision resulting in a property damage claim.

The report is based only on data from the company’s customers. Allstate said its auto policies represent about 11.3 percent of all U.S. auto policies.

The report didn’t speculate on why some cities have more collisions than others, but the company does recommend that drivers stay safe by minimizing distractions, being aware of road conditions, leaving a safe distance between cars, watching for road rage and properly maintaining vehicles.