Gary, Indiana. took the number two spot. Jackson, Mississippi took number three, though they were nowhere close to Daytona Beach, with 3.84 and 3.79 times the median rate of car deaths.
Among small towns — those with populations under 50,000 — Dayton, Texas (located in the greater Houston metro) topped the list with a crash death rate an astonishing 12.4 times the national median
Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JoWMRt2vMV2uwlzPc4InSJlKckEHr5WyxYbXTIIIjHo/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Lived in STL and Chicago. Both cities are driving nightmares, but STL is worse for the exact reason you mentioned: predictability.
In Chicago, there are tons of asshole drivers. Probably more than in STL. But you know what they’re gonna do and where they drive, so they can be avoided. In STL? Another story. It’s not just that there are asshole drivers in STL, it’s that they genuinely don’t know how to drive on top of being assholes. (Don’t get me started on Missouri’s “driver’s education” requirements.) It literally is the wild wild west of driving.
I’ll take an asshole chicagoan who actually knows how to drive over a St Louisian any day. The amount of just driving through red lights is unreal.