Four Tennessee cities have landed a spot on ConsumerAffairs’ recent study ranking the nation’s top 20 cities with the worst drivers.
The ConsumerAffairs Research Team took into consideration four crash factors – total car crash fatalities per 100,000 people, number of fatal crashes due to bad driving per 100,000 people, number of fatalities due to positive blood alcohol content per 100,000 people, and number of fatalities due to speeding per 100,000 people – adding them together to create a “crash score.”
The study ranked cities with populations of 100,000 or greater.
Memphis was ranked the top city in the entire nation for having the worst drivers, as the city received a crash score of 86.6.
Memphis is 5.6 times the national average when it comes to the highest rate of fatal crashes caused by bad driving, according to the study.
“In the last recorded year (2021), bad drivers caused 203 fatal crashes in Memphis, more than any other city. (Chicago had 118, and New York City had 107),” the study explains. “During the same time period, bad driving caused 19,087 fatal crashes in the U.S. This means about 1% of all fatal car crashes caused by bad driving happened on Memphis streets.”
Rounding out the top five cities with the worst drivers are Baton Rouge, Louisiana (73.8 crash score), Albuquerque, New Mexico (50.8 crash score), Macon, Georgia (49.1 crash score), and St. Louis, Missouri (47.4 crash score).
Knoxville was ranked the 12th city for worst drivers in the study, with a crash score of 44.6. Clarksville was ranked 17th with a crash score of 40.4 and Chattanooga was ranked 19th with a crash score of 40.1.
The study analyzed the most recently reported crash data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Also, it used the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to determine the cities with the worst drivers.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Since Nashville isn’t at or near the top of this list, I think the report was cobbled together by crackheads.
Chattanooga problem is Alabama and Georgia drivers.
Finally, Memphis is tops at something other than crime rates.
Wow! Those cities must really suck to drive in. I’m sure if they considered “braking into the highway merge”, “failure to properly merge at exits”, “braking for no reason”, and “doing stupid things that just increase the traffic problem” then Nashville would have made the list too!