CHICAGO — When it comes to traffic accidents, look out Chicago.
A nationwide analysis by Allstate Insurance of its policyholders finds that its Chicago drivers collide with another vehicle about once every 8.2 years, faster than the national average of 10 years.
The insurance giant also looks at cities by what it calls "hard-braking events" per 1,000 miles. Hard-braking data, obtained from technology some policyholders use to reduce their premiums, records rapid reductions of speed by 8 mph or more over a one-second period.
In Chicago, the average is 25.8 hard-braking events for every 1,000 miles, compared with 19 nationwide.
Overall, Chicago's ranking is 129th in the insurance company's "America's safest driving cities" list. The worst is Boston, where drivers crash about once every 3.6 years (though only average 21.4 hard-braking events.)
In 2015 in Chicago, the most recent year-end data available, some 119 people were killed in traffic accidents.
Recently, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a plan dubbed "Vision Zero" that aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and injuries by 2026. The plan includes more speed cameras, better road design and more data analysis.
RELATED: Deadly Crashes Up, City Says
According to Vision Zero, five people are injured in car crashes every day in the city, and every three days someone is killed in traffic incidents in Chicago.
In total numbers, Downtown had the most crashes. By crashes per 100,000, the Near West Side led the city, followed by the West Side cluster of North Lawndale and Garfield Park, the city says.
Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to die in a traffic crash, the Vision Zero report says.
Allstate said the Fourth of July is the deadliest day on the road for drivers in the United States. Particularly dangerous are the hours between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
