<VV> OK Iowa Goers--You'll Be Safe!

Tim Verthein minoxphotographer at yahoo.com
Tue Jun 7 09:21:47 EDT 2005


If yer heading for Cedar Rapids for the Mini-Convention, news reports
this morning show it's the safest place to drive in the nation!  I
figured it was because they are all driving tractors!  Just wait till
all the Corvairs get there! Story below
Tim in Bovey


CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Maybe it's savvy civic engineering or just the
courteous, slower rhythms of the Midwest, but a new study shows that
motorists in this eastern Iowa city are the safest in the nation. 

Researchers with Allstate Insurance Co. analyzed two years worth of
internal crash and claim data to calculate the chances that drivers in
196 of the nation's biggest cities would be involved in an accident
compared to the national average. 

Allstate, which claims a 12 percent market share of the nation's auto
insurance policies, found that Cedar Rapids motorists average an
accident once every 15 years, far better than the national rate of one
every 10 years. 

Motorists attributed the city's high grade to a variety of factors,
including an efficient interstate that eases trips across town, the
city's easy, grid-like layout and the slower pace and attitude of
Iowans in general. 

"I'd like to think it's because everybody is so polite," Connie
Trautman, a 10-year Cedar Rapids resident, said Monday. 

With a population of 122,500, Cedar Rapids is among the smallest of the
cities surveyed by Allstate. But the report's findings also mirror
results of an earlier study by GMAC Insurance Group that rated Iowa
drivers high in knowledge about traffic rules and safety, putting the
state third in the nation. 

According to Allstate, the other safest cities behind Cedar Rapids
were, respectively: Sioux Falls, S.D.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Huntsville,
Ala.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Des Moines, Iowa; Topeka, Kan.; Lakewood,
Colo.; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Birmingham, Ala. 

Allstate researchers say it's no surprise that some of the nation's
biggest, densest urban centers are among the most likely places for
accidents waiting to happen. 

Washington, D.C., ranked 25th in the nation for population, is the
least safe city for motorists with a chance of a fender bender once
every 5.2 years. 

But not all big cities rank poorly on the safety scale, according to
the study. 

Drivers in Milwaukee, ranked 19th in population, are likely to
experience a crash once every 12.95 years, the best among cities with
more than 500,000 people. Among cities with more than 1 million people,
Phoenix ranks the highest for safety, with a collision likely once
every 10 years. 

Researchers studied 2.2 million damage claims, defined as any collision
resulting in property damage, filed between January 2002 and December
2003, a broad enough period to limit the influence of external factors
such as weather and road construction. 



===
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. 
But you still don't want to get any on you.
===


		
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