A new study on motor vehicle collisions in California provides evidence that San Francisco is the most dangerous city in the state for drivers.

The data was collected and analyzed by Liljegren Law Group and 1point21 Interactive, who looked at the following factors: collision rate, fatality rate, injury rate, alcohol-related crash rate, speed-related crash rate, hit and run rate, population density, daily vehicle miles traveled, average rainfall and percentage of young drivers.

By focusing on all cities in California with a population of more than 100,000 people, it was determined that San Francisco had the highest number of the above factors to contend with, making it the most dangerous city to drive in across the state.

San Bernadino, Santa Ana, Berkeley and Los Angeles were also in the top five.

Of the factors studied, several proved to be more important than others. For example, wet roads played a notably large role in determining dangerous conditions; the 20 most dangerous cities received nearly four more inches of rain per year on average than the 20 safest cities.

City size and population density were also important contributing factors. The average population of the 20 most dangerous cities studied was 406,463, compared with 234,753 for the 20 safest.

And age played an important role; drivers between the ages of 15 and 29 were responsible for 51 percent of all collisions that were analyzed in the study, despite the fact that people in that age range only account for 22 percent of the state’s population.

Although San Francisco had the most factors that contributed to collisions, it did not rank as high as other cities in the state in regards to vehicular fatalities. San Bernadino won that unfortunate honor, with more than three fatalities recorded for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled. San Francisco is reported to have a little over 1.5 fatalities for the same distance.

As for the top five cities for drunk driving related incidents, no Northern California cities made the cut. Escondido, Downey, Santa Maria, Rialto and Costa Mesa all took that category.

While this study only looked at vehicular collisions, The City has also been working on reducing pedestrian and cyclist fatalities as part of its Vision Zero campaign. Based on data collected in a pedestrian safety report last year, San Francisco has the second highest rate of pedestrian injury and death in the nation, after New York City.

Taking the serious nature of both studies into consideration, it appears that San Francisco will have its hands full eliminating both vehicular collisions as well as pedestrian injuries and fatalities by its goal date of 2024.

SEE RELATED: Pedestrian deaths remain steady as SF rolls out new safety measures

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