Portland Maine Police Department’s Crash Data Reveals Top Causes of Car Accidents

The Portland Police Department has been sharing interesting data and statistics on their Facebook page recently that is part of their effort to put public information out to the...well....public.

For instance, starting in August, they began publishing public information showing traffic statistics for the city of Portland including traffic stops, citations, and the reason for those citations. The data shows there are a lot of people out there with unregistered cars.

This week traffic statistics were published by the Portland PD that covered from July 30 to August 5 and while looking at the data you can clearly see that drivers in Portland are doing several things wrong that is causing them to get in an accident, yet is easily corrected.

According to the data, there were 73 car crashes from July 30 to August 5 in Portland. 62 of them cause property damage, we assume mostly the vehicles. 9 of the crashes were hit and runs in which we hope police were able to track down the offender. And 11 crashes involved an injury.

The intersection of Forest and Stevens Avenue gets the most frequent crashes and when you take a look at this crazy and very busy intersection, you can see why.

The number one cause of accidents in Portland so far in 2023 has been because drivers were following the car ahead of them too closely. If you get on someone's bumper like that, sooner or later your going to get a grill full of bumper.

The two other most frequent causes of an accident in Portland were distracted driving and OUI.

So what have we learned today kids? Put your phone away, give yourself plenty of space between you and the person in front of you, and don't drink and drive. All three are common sense, but sometimes people disregard common sense and end up as a statistic in these reports. Don't let that be you.