Salt Lake City drivers drop 19 spots in new safety rankings, fall to No. 67

Salt Lake City drivers crashed in a new nationwide safety ranking, dropping 19 spots to No. 67 overall among the country’s largest 200 cities.

That’s the finding in Allstate’s annual America’s Best Drivers Report, which ranks cities according to collision frequency based on claims made to that insurance company.

The report figures that Salt Lake City drivers are in accidents about once every 9.81 years. That is about 8% worse than the national average of suffering a wreck every 10.6 years.

For the second year in a row, traffic in Brownsville, Texas, ranked as the nation’s safest — where drivers average having an accident once every 14.95 years.

Just behind it are Boise (13.65 years between accidents); Huntsville, Ala. (13.39 years); and Kansas City, Kan. (13.21 years).

The most dangerous cities were Baltimore (4.19 years between accidents); Washington, D.C. (4.36 years); and Boston (4.89 years).

Allstate released the report in advance of the July 4 holiday, the deadliest day on U.S. roads, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The group teamed with Allstate for the annual study.

“Whether it’s a holiday trip or a routine drive to work, safety should always be along for the ride,” said institute President David Harkey. “The best drivers buckle up on every trip, obey the speed limit and never drive while impaired or distracted. If everyone followed these rules, we would have fewer crashes, injuries and deaths every day of the year.”

Other studies through the years have given wildly varying grades to Utah and its drivers.

Earlier this year, Carinsurance.com called Utah the best place in the nation to drive, based on what it said is “the state’s low crash-related fatalities and excellent road conditions, as well as lower-than-average congestion, uninsured drivers, and auto insurance costs.”

In 2017, Utah drivers were ranked third worst in the nation in a study by QuoteWizard, a website for comparing car insurance. That marked an improvement because the previous year, it ranked Utah drivers as the nation’s worst. That study looked at such things as car crashes, traffic tickets and drunken driving.

Four years ago, Insure.com ranked Utah drivers as the 10th rudest in the nation.