No one decides where to crash their car in New York. But drivers who crash in Manhattan are least likely to be ticketed.

A WNYC analysis of data from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles has revealed that drivers who crash in Manhattan are 30 percent less likely to be ticketed than drivers who crash in the outer boroughs. The data show that 6.8 percent of outer borough crashes result in tickets – but only 4.4 percent of Manhattan crashes resulted in a citation from police.

Those stats are from 2012 and 2013, before Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and made combating car fatalities a priority.  Police gave tickets to drivers in very few of the 108,736 crashes in those years – even those that resulted in death. Citywide, less than 14 percent of fatal crashes drew a citation.

The numbers drop even further as the severity of accidents is reduced. Police handed out tickets in just over 8 percent of crashes that caused incapacitating injury. 

If a driver kills or severely injures someone in a crash, their chances of receiving a summons range from less than 2 percent to more than 20 percent. In Inwood’s 34^th precinct, there were 53 crashes that resulted in death or serious injury – and only one ticket issued. But in Jamaica’s 113^th precinct, 100 such collisions produced more than 22 tickets. 

Police issued citations in less than 6 percent in traffic crashes of any kind.

Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Mayor de Blasio, said the mayor is stepping up enforcement.

“We’ve made it a major priority to strengthen laws and increase resources for crash investigations to gather the evidence needed to hold accountable people who behave recklessly. There is no question these are areas where we need to continue working with law enforcement officials and legislators to make our streets safer.”

One of Mayor de Blasio's early initiatives was to launch Vision Zero, a multi-agency push aimed at increasing traffic safety and driving down fatalities. One way to judge how those efforts are going will be to examine the 2014 crash-and-ticket statistics, which are supposed to become be available by the middle of next year. The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment for this story.