By Kevin Sieff, The Brownsville Herald
July 5, 2008 - 10:34PM

The announcement might surprise many, but the 2008 Allstate America's Best Drivers Report ranks Brownsville drivers as the safest in Texas.

The city also ranks 21st nationally in Allstate's list of cities with the safest drivers.

"This is not an opinion-based survey, this is data," said Bill Mellander, an Allstate spokesman. "It's a real world snapshot of what is actually happening in Brownsville."

According to the report, Brownsville drivers are 16.3 percent less likely to experience a vehicle collision than the national average. The statistics are based on the number of accidents reported by Allstate clients. According to Mellander, more than 12 percent of the city's population owns Allstate insurance.

Three other cities on the Texas-Mexico border - Laredo, McAllen and El Paso - were also highly ranked in the report, a positive reflection of the safety of drivers on the border.

"You do see certain geographic correlations," Mellander said. "But they're largely coincidental."

In August 2003, Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor told Insurance Journal, "I think it's fair to say the closer you get to the border, the higher the incidence of uninsured drivers there."

Whether the large number of uninsured drivers drivers in Brownsville influenced Allstate's report could not be ascertained.

Brownsville's drivers were also named the safest in Texas in 2007. To thank the community, Allstate gave away 1,750 gallons of gas to local motorists in September of last year.

Mellander credits not only the drivers themselves, but also the city's infrastructure with preventing accidents.