The State of Louisiana is home to the nation's worst drivers, according to a recent study. It is the second year in a row they've captured the dubious honor.
Anyone who has driven outside of their home state believes they’ve been to the place with the worst drivers in the country. However, statistically speaking, unless you picked Louisiana, you would be wrong.
For the second consecutive year, residents in the Sportsman’s Paradise finished atop the list of states with the worst drivers, according to a study by CarInsuranceComparison.com.
The study examines five categories of bad driving: fatalities rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled; failure to obey traffic signals and seat belts; drunk driving; tickets; and careless driving.
Finishing in the Top Five Failure to Obey, Ticketing Rate and Careless Driving, gave Louisiana the top spot again by five points more than South Carolina.
In short, the more tickets drivers in each state received, the worse the state ranked.
The statistics, which included all 50 states as well as Washington D.C., were pulled from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Motorists Association.
The rest of the Top 10, in order, included:
- South Carolina
- Mississippi
- Texas
- Alabama
- Florida
- Missouri and North Carolina (tie)
- Montana
- North Dakota
Montana, which finished ninth overall, took the top – or worst – spots for Drunk Driving and Fatality Rate. Kentucky was the worst for Failure to Obey, Nevada for Ticketing Rate, and Florida for Careless Driving.
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Conversely, Oregon, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Utah and Vermont numbered 47 though 51 on the list, making the Green Mountain state the safest place to drive.
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Of the 15 states with the best drivers, only four ranked in the bottom half for Careless Driving, which typically includes tickets for texting while driving and other violations where drivers are distracted, according to the website.
Unfortunately IME most of the U.S. roadways are a death trap the way people careen down the roadways. It’s like splitting hairs when you categorize the worst of the worst…
With the exception of fatality rate per miles driven, the factors cited all directly reflect rigid policing and rapacious enforcement. Traffic fines resulting from cops with big quotas might go a long way toward explaining why the “worst” eight states for driving safety are among the nations’ poorest states by income. North Dakota and Montana, of course, are outliers with average highway speeds that make German autobahns seem like funeral processions by comparison.