- BestLife crunched a bunch of data to determine which states have the worst drivers in the US.
- Using statistics related to DUI arrests, speeding tickets, and percentages of uninsured drivers, the list attempts to answer the question of which state has the worst drivers of all.
- The number one state on the list might actually surprise you.
We all like to think we’re great drivers. If you’re being tailgated by someone on the highway, it’s because that person is impatient and, of course, a bad driver. If you’re the person riding the bumper of the car in front of you, it’s obviously because that person is driving way too slow and you have places to be, so they’re really the bad driver. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
Anyway, there are some actual metrics we can look at if we want to nail down what it really means to be a bad driver. BestLife did just that, piling a whole bunch of data into a single number and then ranking each state in the US based on how bad that state’s drivers performed. As someone who lives in a state that routinely has terrible weather, I’m rather shocked at the rankings.
BestLife’s 50-state ranking is based on data from a variety of sources. First, the number of car accident fatalities per capita was tallied, followed by the percentage of uninsured drives, the number of DUI arrests per capita, and finally the number of speeding tickets per capita. All of this information was used to create each state’s “Bad Driver Index Score.”
Before we take a look at the worst drivers in the United States, let’s take a look at the bottom of the list. This should indicate which states actually have the best drivers. Starting from the bottom, here are the states with the best drivers, based on the data used:
- Massachusetts
- Illinois
- New York
- Delaware
- Pennsylvania
- Connecticut
- Virginia
- Ohio
- Rhode Island
- New Jersey
I know there are a lot of people rolling their eyes at this list right now, but using the statistics that were available, this is how things shook out. It’s worth noting that, for some of the states, some data was missing, like the number of speeding tickets for Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Still, these states did very well on the other data points, helping them in the rankings.
Now let’s take a look at the top of the list. These are the states with the worst drivers:
- Mississippi
- Wyoming
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- New Mexico
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Florida
- Washington
- Arkansas
Well! You see, I thought for sure we’d see a whole bunch of northern states on the top of the list simply because fender-benders are all too common once the roads get icy and slippery, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Based on the data, the states at the top of the list all have pretty high marks when it comes to things like accident fatalities, DUI arrests, and speeding tickets.
If you want to check out the full list and see where your state lands, head on over to BestLife.
