"We’re always behind metal and glass," says Don Cheadle in the opening scene of Crash. "I think we miss that sense of touch so much, we crash into each other just to feel something." That Best Picture-stealing film continues to age quite poorly, but a new report from Allstate certainly backs up the idea that LA drivers do an inordinate amount of crashing.
Data from the auto insurance provider shows that, on average, drivers in Los Angeles experience collisions every 6.3 years. That’s nearly 59 percent higher than the national average and enough to make LA one of the 10 least safe cities in the U.S. for drivers. The silver lining? Glendale drivers are slightly worse, crashing every 5.8 years (sorry to any readers in Glendale—stay safe).
The poor driving wasn’t constrained to SoCal either. Drivers in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose all collided with one another at rates well above the national average. As a whole, Californians just can’t seem to keep from running into things. Only two cities in the state (Lancaster and Thousand Oaks) saw less collisions per capita than the national average.
Of course, all the stop-and-go traffic doesn’t help. In 2015, LA drivers spent an average of 81 hours stuck in traffic. That gives the person texting in the car behind you ample opportunity to take out your rear bumper.
- America’s Best Drivers Report [Allstate]
- LA Drivers Wasted 81 Hours Each Sitting in Traffic Last Year [Curbed LA]
- Your Next Car Accident Is Just Around the Corner [Curbed LA]
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