Portland’s drivers are some of the most crash-prone in the nation, according to an annual ranking by Allstate insurance released Tuesday.

Allstate’s 15th annual America’s Best Driver’s report listed Portland as 181st safest driving city in the country. The ranking looked at the nation’s 200 largest cities.

Portland ranked dead last among the largest cities in the Pacific Northwest based on the insurance agency’s analysis of crash frequency based on claims submitted.

According to its rankings, the average Portland driver is involved in a crash every seven years. For comparison’s purpose, the average Seattle driver experiences a crash every 7.7 years. The average driver in Boise, which ranked second overall in the nation for safest drivers, was involved in a crash every 13.7 years. The national average is one crash every 10.6 years.

As of 2017, there were 225 million licensed drivers nationwide, according to federal statistics. Allstate declined to provide data on the number of drivers reflected in its rankings, but Spokeswoman Carley Frederickson said the company provided insurance to roughly 10% of American drivers, “making the report a realistic snapshot of what’s happening on U.S. roads.”

The ranking doesn’t examine traffic fatalities, an increasingly important issue in Portland politics given the city’s focus on eliminating all traffic fatalities and a recent uptick in 2019 in fatal crashes.

“The goal of the America’s Best Drivers Report is to make our roads safer and ultimately save lives,” Ken Rosen, Allstate’s chief claims officer, said in a statement. “Each of us needs to ask how we can do our part in our day-to-day lives and for our communities. And beyond that, this country needs to come together to address pressing safety issues, such as rebuilding our roadway infrastructure to reduce risky conditions on America’s roads.”

Portland’s safety ranking actually improved nine spots from the 2018 report. Baltimore was ranked as the least-safe driving city in the nation. Brownsville, Texas, came in first place this year.

The insurance company also analyzed cities based on the number of “hard-braking” events reported in a given year, a figure that is dependent on drivers who are insured through Allstate volunteering to enroll in a program that allows the company to track their driving behavior. According to those hard-braking statists, the average American driver slows on the brakes 19 times for every 1,000 miles driven. According to its data, the average Portland driver has 22 hard-braking events every 1,000 miles.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen

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