Missouri drivers should know how dangerous it is to tailgate or to cut in front of a vehicle only to be forced to brake hard. Applying more than usual pressure to the brakes is a sure sign of negligence or recklessness, and it makes sense that the rate of hard-braking events would say something about the rate of car collisions.
This correlation is what Allstate explored in its 2019 America’s Best Drivers Report. The auto insurance company looked at collisions that occurred between January 2016 and December 2017 and led to a property damage claim. It then took data from its Drivewise telematics program in order to determine how many times drivers would brake hard. The study focused on these two trends as they appeared in the 200 most populous U.S. cities.
The national averages were as follows. For every 1,000 miles traveled, drivers brake hard about 19 times. Drivers experience a collision involving property damage every 10.57 years. In Baltimore, Maryland, though, drivers brake hard more than 30 times per 1,000 miles and get in a collision every four years. This made Baltimore the least safe city in the country.
Brownsville, Texas, was the safest with drivers not seeing an accident in 15 years. Allstate could not provide the city’s hard-braking data, though.
Aggressive driving is a common factor in car accidents, and it can give the victims a good reason to file a personal injury claim. Since Missouri follows a comparative negligence rule, even those who are partially at fault can have a chance at recovering damages, though the damages will be proportioned to their degree of fault. To determine if they should go forward with a case, victims may consult an attorney. They may have the attorney handle settlement negotiations and more.
