YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown isn’t known as the safest place to drive in the Mahoning Valley, much less the entire state.

But Insurify, a car insurance quote comparison website in Cambridge, Mass., deemed Youngstown as the safest driving city in Ohio.

“I don’t have a clue how they’d come up with that conclusion,” Youngstown police Chief Robin Lees said. “We’re not on the other end of the spectrum, but we’re definitely not the safest. I don’t know how they decided that, but I want to congratulate us for doing a good job.”

When told of the selection of Youngstown, Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene said, “Are you sure? That’s very surprising — pleasantly surprising.”

HOW IT WORKS

Insurify reviews its database of about 2.5 million policy applications submitted to the company to determine the communities with the safest roads, said Alexandra Conza, a spokeswoman.

When applying for auto insurance, car owners list prior moving violations, including speeding, at-fault accidents, operating a vehicle while impaired convictions, reckless driving and running red lights.

“Results were calculated based on the proportion of drivers with a moving violation on their record” regardless of a community’s size, Conza said. “The city in each state with the lowest proportion of drivers with a moving violation on their record was selected as the city with the safest drivers.”

Insurify found that 74.72 percent of Youngstown drivers it had information about had no moving violations on their record, she said.

Because the review is done for only those who file applications with Insurify, the results are limited.

The Insurify review had a few other head-scratching cities on its list as the safest in their respective states. New York City was No. 1 in New York, Philadelphia was first in Pennsylvania and Chicago was tops in Illinois. They are among the top 10 most-populous cities in the country.

Winners in Ohio in prior years were Newark in 2019 and Lorain in 2018.

MANY CRASHES

Sgt. Ray Santiago, Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman for Northeast Ohio, said he couldn’t say how Insurify made its determination because he doesn’t know how it tabulated its data.

But OSHP data for the full year of 2019 showed Mahoning was in the top 10 counties in the state with the most crashes.

Additionally, Youngstown police often note in their reports about traffic stops when drivers are under suspension, or when weapons or drugs are found.

Trying to come up with a reason for Youngstown, Lees said the city was successful in reducing accidents on highways through the use of speed cameras, which were eliminated late last year.

“I don’t know if that’s a part or not,” he said. “Outside of that, I don’t know.”

Insurify isn’t going to send a plaque to Youngstown, but the city could choose to download a “badge” to put on its website to acknowledge the honor.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com