California ranked third worst state for multiple-vehicle crashes
Study conducted by Florida lawyers
– New data has revealed which states drivers are most likely to be in fatal multi-vehicle crashes. The study, conducted by Florida personal injury lawyers Anidjar & Levine, analyzed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash data from the last five years, to identify the states where multiple-vehicle crashes make up the highest proportion of overall fatal crashes.
There are many reasons why a crash takes place between more than two vehicles, including a chain reaction whereby an initial collision triggers a series of accidents, poor weather conditions making the road dangerous for multiple drivers, and unsafe lane changes, according to the study.
The study revealed that Washington has the highest percentage of fatal car crashes involving multiple vehicles, reporting over 240 crashes involving three or more vehicles. This equates to 9.1% of the state’s total crashes – which is 22% higher than the national average (7.4%). Following Washington as the second-most dangerous state for multiple-vehicle crashes is Utah, as 8.9% of the state’s total 1,258 fatal crashes involve several vehicles.
California was found to be the third-most dangerous area, with over 1.5k deadly incidents involving more than two vehicles. This equates to 8.4% of the state’s total fatal accidents.
The fourth most dangerous state is Florida, with multiple-vehicle incidents making up 8.3% of total fatal road collisions. Following behind is Georgia, also with a fatal multiple-vehicle crash rate of 8.3% – which is more than a tenth higher (12.3%) than the national average.
On the opposite end of the scale, the state with the lowest proportion of fatal multiple-vehicle crashes is Montana, which has a rate of 1.9%, which is 74% below the national average.
Following Montana, South Dakota had a percentage of 3.2%, while Mississippi ranks in third place with 4.9% of total fatal crashes involving more than two vehicles – which is still a third (34%) below the national average.
All data was sourced from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Motor Vehicle Crash data, between 2017-2021: https://www.nhtsa.gov/data.
