When drivers in California have to brake hard, this means they are either acting recklessly or reacting to another driver who was being reckless. In either case, hard braking is often linked to car accidents. The auto insurer Allstate has looked at the rate of both car collisions and hard-braking events in the 200 most populous cities in the U.S., and it has found a clear link between the two.

First, the report is based on collision data from January 2016 to December 2017. All the collisions analyzed led to a property damage claim. As for the hard-braking data, Allstate based this on the driving performance of those who voluntarily enrolled for its Drivewise telematics program during that two-year period.

More hard-braking events means more collisions. The most dangerous of the 200 cities, which turned out to be Baltimore, Maryland, illustrated this. Nationwide, drivers are in collisions every 10.57 years on average and engage in hard braking 19 times per 1,000 miles, but drivers in Baltimore crash an average of every four years and brake hard over 30 times per 1,000 miles.

The safest city was Brownsville, Texas, where the drivers tend to see a crash every 15 years. For their report, though, Allstate did not have this city’s hard-braking data at hand.

Drivers who brake hard after tailgating a vehicle or cutting in front of it can be held liable if their action does not prevent them from causing a crash. Victims, for their part, may file a personal injury claim in the effort to be reimbursed for medical expenses and other losses. A claim is not something to take lightly; it may be best, for example, to have a lawyer assess it and, then, give assistance during each step. If a settlement cannot be achieved, the lawyer may litigate.