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10 cities with the worst drivers

July 15, 2026 by Nina Bennett
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Location makes a huge difference when it comes to traffic safety as well as car insurance rates. We analyzed the 50 most populous cities in the U.S to find the cities with the worst drivers on the road. Here’s what we looked at:

  • Likelihood of collision: The percentage refers to the chance of a crash compared to the national average.
  • Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities: The number of fatalities per 100,000 people by state.
  • Speeding-related fatalities by state: This statistic was tracked over a nine-year period from 2012-2021.
  • Annual increase in car insurance premium after DUI and reckless driving: Pulled from Zebra data, this indicates how harshly premiums are affected after specific violations.

Want to learn more about how accidents and violations affect your insurance? Check out our guides:

  • Car Insurance After an Accident
  • Car Insurance with Tickets or Violations

Methodology

The Zebra pulled five data points to analyze the top 50 MSAs (by population) in the U.S. related to driving and car insurance:

  • Likelihood of collision[2]
  • Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities by state[3]
  • Speeding-related fatalities by state[4]
  • Annual increase in auto insurance premium after DUI and reckless driving

MSA data was used where applicable, and we sometimes substituted city or state data as necessary.

Categories Research

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