Glendale’s drivers named among nation’s worst

Glendale is one of the least safe cities to be on the road, according to a new insurance report that says the city’s motorists are 72.6% more likely to get into a collision compared to the national average.

Glendale ranks toward the bottom Allstate Insurance Co.’s America’s Best Drivers report, in which the company analyzes the frequency of collisions with property damages of Allstate-insured drivers from 2011 to 2012 in the nation’s 200 largest cities.

Glendale was ranked the 194th safest city for driving, with motorists getting into collisions every 5.8 years on average. Of all the California cities included in the report, Glendale was ranked last.

Meanwhile, the report ranks Fort Collins, Co. as the country’s safest city for driving, with motorists going an average of 14.2 years between accidents. Drivers in that city are 29.6% less likely to get into a collision compared to the national average, the report states.

Allstate, which insures about 10% of all passenger vehicles on the road, has consistently ranked Glendale toward the bottom of the list in its 10 years of releasing the report.

The purpose of the rankings is to boost the country’s discussion about safe driving, especially at a time where there are not only more cars on the road than ever, but also more distractions to drivers, said Allstate spokesman Jim Klapthor.

“Our grandparents, if they drove, didn’t have cellphones, they didn’t have MP3 players they could plug into their dashboard,” Klapthor said, adding that now, drivers might be simultaneously adjusting their seat temperature, while plugging in electronics and using navigation devices.