CRESTVIEW — The city has popped up in an unflattering light in an online ranking for driving-under-the-influence traffic fatalities.
“Our consumer affairs experts ran the numbers, and Crestview is ranked 10th worst in Florida for highest DUI-related deaths,” Kay Evans of ConsumerAffairs.com stated in an email.
“Crestview is 63rd safest out of 72 communities,” Evans said, though the report actually lists statistics for 150 cities.
See "HOW WE RANK" at left for more information
The Lake Tahoe, Nevada-based consumer news site claims Crestview ranks worse than cities such as Sarasota, Miami and Cocoa Beach in traffic fatalities.
According to Consumer Affairs’ statistics, Crestview had five traffic fatalities in 2014, the last year for which data was available, Evans said.
However, the website inflates or deflates communities’ populations to 100,000 residents, “to even the playing field for all sizes of communities,” Evans stated. “That way, we can rank larger cities next to smaller cities and know that the rank is correct.”
Under that methodology, the site actually lists 21.5 DUI-related traffic fatalities in Crestview in 2014.
‘RIDICULOUS’ DATA
Whatever method the site uses to organize its data, it’s wrong, local authorities said.
“That is ridiculous,” Crestview Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Andrew Schneider said. “I’ve been here 16 years and there are the only two (DUI fatalities) I remember.”
Schneider said to be certain, he and Investigations Division Cmdr. Jamie Grant checked Crestview Police records as far back as 2005.
“The only DUI traffic fatalities that we can recall were when we arrested a lady (June 6, 2015) who drove over the two guys on Wilson Street,” killing one, Schneider said. “The only other one we could find was a DUI that occurred on North Pearl Street on New Year’s Day in 2013.”
Evans stands by the website’s data.
“The data was gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration via local police departments,” she stated in an email.
Crestview Police disputed the claim.
“If they are using those statistics, they’re getting them from someplace other than factual sources,” Schneider said.
RANKINGS
In the Consumer Affairs article, which featured reviews of automobile insurance companies, the site ranked the Crestview area 63rd in the state for distracted driving, claiming 17.2 distracted driving deaths, 17.2 DUI deaths, and 21.5 total deaths inflated to reflect a fictional population of 100,000 residents.
The site actually placed Crestview 77th in the state in DUI deaths, ranking worse than Niceville, 101st, but better than Valparaiso, the closest neighboring communities ranked in the report.
The next closest cities, Pensacola, Panama City Beach and Panama City, ranked 81st, 138th and 87th respectively.
Nationwide, the report states, the average is eight distracted driving deaths, 4 DUI deaths and 21.3 deaths per 100,000 people.
“If they want to use numbers to say things like that, they need to get them from factual sources,” Schneider said.
Crestview ranks poorly among Florida cities for DUI traffic fatalities and distracted driving, according to ConsumerAffairs.com.
Distracted driving: 85th in Florida (Niceville: 45th; Valparaiso: 89th; Panama City: 75th; Panama City Beach: 98th; and Pensacola: 48th)
DUI: 63rd in Florida (Niceville: 47th; Valparaiso: 64th; Panama City: 51st; Panama City Beach: 70th; Pensacola: 13th)
Total traffic deaths: 77th in Florida (Niceville: 101st; Valparaiso: 66th; Panama City: 87th; Panama City Beach: 138th; Pensacola: 81st)
Source: ConsumerAffairs.com. Fort Walton Beach and Destin were not included among nearby communities in the report
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ONLINE
See bit.ly/1W3wzbH for Crestview’s entry in ConsumerAffairs.com’s ranking of Florida city driving safety
HOW WE RANKED
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview tops in DUI fatalities? Police contest claim