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Mass Ranks Among Safest States To Use Public Transportation: Study

Massachusetts residents have read plenty of MBTA horror stories, but those are outliers according to a new report that ranks the Bay State as one of the safest in the country in public transportation. 

An MBTA bus

An MBTA bus

Photo Credit: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Facebook

Massachusetts came in eighth in the United States for public transportation safety, according to a pre-settlement legal funding company, High Rise Legal Funding. 

The report analyzed data on bus fatalities between 2010-2022 from the Bureau of Transport Statistics, as well as rail accident data for 2022 from the Federal Railroad Administration. The number of bus fatalities and rail accidents were then compared to the population of each state to find the number of public transportation accidents per 100,000 residents.

New Hampshire came out on top, scoring a perfect score of 100 in public transportation safety. The state recorded zero bus fatalities between 2010 and 2020 and zero rail accidents throughout 2022, making it top of the class. 

Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Maine came in at second, third, and fourth, respectively. Massachusetts performed admirably, receiving a public transport safety score of 56.52. 

The bottom of the barrel included North Dakota, New Mexico, and Montana, which finished 47, 48, and 49, respectively. 

Montana received a public transport safety score of only 12.81. It experienced 1.76 rail accidents per 100,000 residents, a figure that is 183% above the national average of 0.96 rail accidents per 100,000 people.

This may be an unfair comparison, considering Montana has a population of just over 1.1 million people. Massachusetts has more than six times the number of residents. 

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