Hi Wayne!
I've always been considered syndication a no-no.
But if your competitor accidentin is ranking well, it could be a number of factors.
If they a syndicating and are always updated frequently, this could be a factor. Google loves freshness and freshness usually ranks better than actual content.
Lets say NYTimes reports something, it will take a 30+minutes for other publishing companies to report the same thing because they don't syndicate it, they rewrite it with same details or more details(investigative journalism). So if they are reporting it and accidentin is reporting it right away, this could be why it ranks well. Because they beat the others to it, and others might start using them as a source, which then would provide them a link to that page.
One other thing that could be a factor, it that the domain is partial match. The partial match definitely can help in ranking better with people searching for "accident in new york" "accident in california" etc.
Also things like social media can help boost a SERP of a site if they get enough shares or likes etc. Many factors can help them.
Sorry for the spam on text, I am on lunch and can't type too coherently. But IMO, the top suspects are the domain name and freshness of content.