WESTFIELD – The city ranked in the top ten safest cities for drivers in the Commonwealth in two categories for 2014.
ConsumerAffairs, a consumer news and advocacy organization founded in 1998 providing consumer news, recall information and tens of thousands of pages of consumer reviews, reported that Westfield ranked number 8 in Massachusetts for having deaths caused by distracted drivers and number 8 for lowest number of deaths related to DUIs (motorists driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs).
ConsumerAffairs says the “Data is sourced from the 2014 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System,” according to www.consumeraffairs.com/insurance/car.html#safest-drivers-dui-ma-westfield.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 6.1 million police-reported crashes nationwide in 2014 (the most current available data), according to Kay Evans of ConsumerAffairs.com.
Evans provided the following information:
– 32,675 people were killed and 2.3 million injured in motor vehicle crashes nationwide in 2014
– 10 percent of fatalities were caused by distracted driving
– 31 percent of fatalities were alcohol-related
– 28 percent were caused by speeding
Westfield reportedly had:
2.42 per 100k deaths occurred due to distracted drivers, which ranked 8 in Massachusetts and 171 in the United States (nationwide there were 6.08 per 100k deaths caused by distracted drivers)
2.42 per 100k deaths were due to DUIs, which ranked 8 in Massachusetts and 217 in the U.S. (nationwide there were 4.08 DUI-related deaths per 100k drivers)
4.84 per 100k were killed due to speeding, which ranked 19 in Massachusetts and 480 in the U.S. (nationwide there were 4.08 speeding-releated deaths per 100k)
4.84 per 100k total highway-related deaths, which ranked 25 in Massachusetts and 225 in the U.S. (nationwide there were 21.13 deaths per 100k)
Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe was unable to comment on these statistics saying he isn’t familiar enough with how Westfield compares to other cities/townships in the Commonwealth nor nationwide.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website, there were 328 highway fatalities in Massachusetts in 2014. The NHTSA reported total population in the Commonwealth for that year as 6,745,408.
Of those 328 deaths, 133, or 41%, were related to alcohol-impaired driving, according to the NHTSA.
Quincy ranked as the safest city in the Commonwealth for least distracted drivers with 1.06 per 100k and had the least number of highway-related deaths, 1.06 per 100k.
Southwick ranked as 60 with 10.35 per 100k of least distracted drivers and all its highway-related deaths in 2014 (10.35 per 100k) were due to distracted drivers.
ConsumerAffairs lists 1565 cities nationwide for the category of distracted drivers and 60 cities/townships in Massachusetts.
The website provides data for 1570 cities nationwide and 60 in the Commonwealth for total highway-related deaths.
Only the top 10 cities are provided on its website for DUI-related deaths nationwide and 56 locations in Massachusetts.
Only the top 10 safest cities nationwide and only the top 10 in Massachusetts were provided on its website for speeding-related deaths.
Staff Writer Christine Charnosky can be reached at [email protected]
