With recent storms across the state, California roads have been absolutely treacherous. But you don’t need all that rain to exercise a little caution. Safety is always the most important rule of the road, rain or shine, and it helps to know what your risks are when driving.
Personal injury law firm Liljegren Law Group knows a thing or two about the dangers of driving. They recently put together an interactive map showing the safest and most dangerous cities for motorists in California.
The analysis looked at cities with populations over 100,000. It then ranked them on a set of key metrics, including collisions; driving fatalities; injury rate; crashes related to drug and alcohol use; hit and runs; population; and rainfall. Here’s some of what they found:
The risk of crash and injury in Northern California is slightly higher than Southern California. Northern California also gets more rain and this study found a clear correlation between yearly precipitation and collision rates. Age was a factor too. Drivers between the ages of 15 and 29 were involved in 51 percent of all collisions. On average, larger cities were also more dangerous.
San Francisco ranked as the most dangerous city for drivers overall, followed by San Bernardino, Santa Ana, and Berkeley. Los Angeles came in at No. 5. Sleepy Simi Valley was the safest. Carlsbad, Fremont, Thousand Oaks, and Temecula followed.
Be sure to check out the full analysis here, featuring a full list and that nifty interactive map.
Data is compiled and reported by Liljegren Law Group. Report does not reflect statistics on all 482 California cities.