Cary ranks among America’s safest cities for drivers; Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville also earn high scores

Note: The accompanying video is from May 2026 and shows previous coverage of Cary crews clearing shrubbery around a welcome sign near the town limits.

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CARY, N.C. (WNCN) — The Town of Cary is one of the safest places to drive in the country, according to a new report, but the Triangle is also home to one of the nation’s most common risky driving habits.

Allstate’s 2026 America’s Best Drivers Report ranked Cary as the No. 5 safest city for drivers in the United States, with motorists averaging 12.82 years between collisions — well above the national average of 10.86 years.

Several other North Carolina cities also ranked among the safest places to drive. Fayetteville placed 24th, Durham ranked 42nd, Greensboro came in at 46th and Raleigh finished 68th out of the nation’s 200 largest cities.

Now in its 18th year, the report analyzes auto insurance claims data to rank the country’s largest cities by collision frequency. For the first time, the report also incorporates insights from Drivewise, an app that tracks driving behaviors such as speeding, braking, nighttime driving and phone use.

While North Carolina cities generally scored well in the overall rankings, the report found the state stands out in one driving category.

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According to Drivewise data, Raleigh, Durham and Fayetteville are among the U.S. cities with the highest rates of hard braking, joining several cities in Arizona at the top of that list.

Allstate said hard braking can be an indicator of stop-and-go traffic or following too closely, both of which may increase the risk of a crash.

“Where you drive plays a role in your risk, but how and when you drive matters just as much,” Laura Hoffman, Allstate’s vice president of auto design and telematics, said in a statement. “By pairing claims data with driving insights such as speeding, hard braking and phone use from Allstate’s Drivewise, we’re helping drivers take simple steps to prevent crashes and keep insurance costs down.”

Nationally, Brownsville, Texas, ranked as the safest city for drivers for the second consecutive year, while Boston remained the nation’s most collision-prone city.

The report is based on property damage claims reported between January 2023 and December 2024, along with anonymized Drivewise data collected throughout 2025. Allstate said the rankings are intended to promote safer driving habits and are not used to determine individual auto insurance rates.

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