The worst cities for deadly car crashes revealed - with three of the top five in Florida

The US cities with the most dangerous roads have been revealed in a new study on the highest number of car crashes - and three of the top five are in Florida. 

ConsumerAffairs studied data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to rank the cities by number of crashes and population. 

In top place with 33 fatal car crashes per 100,000 people was Memphis, Tennessee, with 207 deadly crashes in 2022. 

Close behind was Daytona Beach, Florida, with 32 fatal crashes per 100,000 people and then Ocala, Florida, with 31 deadly crashes per 100,000. 

Fort Lauderdale was in fifth place behind Macon, Georgia, meaning there were three Floridian cities in the top five.  

The report included crashes with cars, light trucks, SUVs and vans in 195 US cities. 

Memphis came in top with three times the nationwide rate of 11.77 crashes per 100,000 people. 

ConsumerAffairs said: 'This finding may not surprise ConsumerAffairs readers, as Memphis was the top-ranked city in our worst drivers in America study last year.'

Although Memphis came top when adjusted for population size, five cities had more fatal crashes in total. 

Los Angeles had the most with 341, followed by Houston, Phoenix, New York City, and Dallas. 

The study also listed the cities with the least crashes. 

Reading, Pennsylvania, was found to be the city with the lowest rate of car crashes in 2022, with 1.05 accidents per 100,000 residents.

Researchers said: 'Reading was one of four with only one fatal car accident the whole year. The others were Passaic, New Jersey; Ames, Iowa; and Iowa City, Iowa.'

New York ranked surprisingly low on the list with just 228 deadly accidents across eight million residents. 

Megan Cooper, an AAA spokesperson, says there are several contributing factors for deadly crashes.

She told WREG: 'Speeding is a huge issue, distracted driving, impaired driving, people not wearing their seatbelts. 

'You know those really simple things that takes us back to Traffic Safety 101.' 

Crashes in the top three cities have made headlines in recent weeks. 

In Ocala, a crash sent a bus flying off the road and through a fence where it rolled over, killing eight passengers and wounding at least 40 others.

In Memphis last week, four people were killed and another was injured in a multi-car accident on I-240.