This North Carolina city has some of the best drivers in US, report finds. Seriously

Simone Jasper
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A North Carolina city has some of the best drivers in the country, a new report finds.

Yes, seriously.

Cary — just west of Raleigh — ranks No. 2 on a list of places with fewer serious crashes due to speeding, aggressive driving and other dangers behind the wheel, according to results that the review website ConsumerAffairs published July 12.

To create the list of locations with the safest drivers, ConsumerAffairs said it studied more than 300 U.S. cities. Each was home to at least 100,000 people.

Using data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the website considered several factors, including the number of fatal crashes per 100,000 people. It also examined each place for on-the-road deaths due to blood alcohol levels, speeding and “bad driving” — which weighed factors such as carelessness and “erratic” lane changing.

Why did Cary rank high on the list?

Among the cities considered, Cary had one of the lowest crash rates of “0.6 fatal crashes per 100K population” in 2021. The two crash-related deaths reported that year involved alcohol or drugs, results show.

Cary was the only city in North Carolina to rank among the nation’s top 10 places for safe driving.

Other cities across the state were ranked from worst to best, including Greensboro at No. 14; Charlotte at No. 42; Wilmington at No. 62; Winston-Salem at No. 77; Fayetteville at No. 81; Durham at No. 148; Concord at No. 156; Raleigh at No. 172; and High Point at No. 206.

ConsumerAffairs said the city with the worst drivers was Memphis, Tennessee.

When it came to safest drivers, the only city to top Cary was Green Bay, Wisconsin. Rounding out the top five:

  • Oxnard, California, at No. 3

  • Bellevue, Washington, at No. 4

  • McKinney, Texas, at No. 5

The latest rankings were released months after Raleigh was named the No. 1 most driver-friendly city in the country. That report considered safety, traffic, access to maintenance and costs of having a car, McClatchy News reported in October.

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