KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – Two Tennessee cities are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in a study to determine the most dangerous places to drive in the United States.
The study, conducted by ConsumerAffairs using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, ranked Memphis and Knoxville as the first and second most dangerous cities for fatal motor vehicle crashes. Rounding out the top five is Waterbury, Connecticut. Aurora, Colorado. Tucson, Arizona, according to ConsumerAffairs findings.
ConsumerAffairs created a ranking based solely on fatal car crashes and divided them into four categories. Death due to drunk driving violation, death due to positive blood alcohol concentration test. Fatal accidents caused by speeding and fatal accidents caused by “improper driving,” which includes accidents caused by inexperience, violation of traffic signs, or erratic driving.
Each of the 327 cities included in the ranking was given a score in each category (along with a score for overall traffic fatalities per capita), and those scores were combined to create the final list.
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According to an analysis by ConsumerAffairs, the top 25 cities with the worst drivers in fatal crashes are:
Memphis, TN Knoxville, TN Waterbury, CT Aurora, CO Tucson, AZ Kansas City, MO San Bernardino, CA Billings, MT Miami Gardens, FL Charleston, SC Murrieta, CA Mobile, AL North Charleston, SC Lubbock, TX Birmingham, AL Chattanooga, TN Detroit, MI Odessa, TX Cedar Rapids, Texas Dallas, Iowa Pomona, Texas Winston-Salem, California Goodyear, North Carolina Pueblo, Arizona Tempe, Colorado Arizona
Tampa and St. Petersburg both improved their rankings this year, according to the study.
Tampa ranked 168th, compared to 49th in 2024. St. Pete ranks 174th this year, improving 91 spots from last year’s 83rd place.
Here are the rankings for the Tampa Bay area:
Complete rankings and methodology for all 327 cities can be found on ConsumerAffairs’ official website.
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Representatives from ConsumerAffairs were not available to further discuss the methodology or confirm when the data used in the study was collected. (ConsumerAffairs said it used the “latest” accident statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.) In many cases, cities at the top had fewer deaths overall than those at the bottom, thanks to the scores ConsumerAffairs assigned to each category.
Joe Young, president of the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, added that the findings don’t necessarily indicate that a city has bad drivers, but that the roads or enforcement may be bad.
“Dangerous roads are not only the result of the people who drive on them, but also the result of policies and designs that permit or encourage such behavior,” Young said in a statement posted on ConsumerAffairs. “For example, speeding issues may point to road design or speed limits that encourage higher speeds, or a lack of enforcement of speed limits that actually exist.”
These latest rankings from ConsumerAffairs mark the third year the company has released its “Worst Drivers” survey. Memphis has been No. 1 in each of the three years.
