The States with America's worst drivers

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Assiciated Press  /   August 8, 2016

When drivers are too slow or honk obnoxiously as they pass by, it's custom to look at their license plate to see what state they are from.

Now, financial tech firm SmartAsset has compiled driving data to determine which states in the US have the worst driving habits.

The study reveals that you should steer clear of those bearing a pair of oranges on their license plate, because Floridians top the list.

SmartAssest gathered data in four areas in order to compile their list: DUI per thousand drivers, deaths per thousand drivers, Google trends on driving tickets and percentage of drivers in the state with insurance. 

Study author Derek Miller said: ‘We then indexed each factor for every state giving equal weighting and then finding the average score per state to create the final index.

'Maybe it’s the heat causing road rage, but four out of the top ten states in our study are located in the southeast.'

And the firm deemed Florida the worst out of all 50 states, which they say is ‘often plagued with a reputation for bad drivers’.

The Sunshine State was found to not only have the second lowest number of insured drivers in the nation, but ‘speeding tickets’ and ‘traffic tickets’ were Googled more than another other state. 

It seems that many of the bad drivers reside in southern states, as Mississippi (second), Alabama (sixth), Tennessee (eighth) and Texas (ninth) all made the top 10 list.

Mississippi, which placed second, ranked fifth in the most deaths from automobile accidents and 12th for DUI arrests per thousand drivers.

And third place went to Oklahoma, as only 74 percent of the drivers in the mid-west state are insured and they have one of the 15 worst scores for DUIs. 

Some may be wondering where New Jersey ranks on the list, as it’s believed to have some of the worst drivers in the country.

But according to SmartAsset’s study the Garden State comes in fourth with its poor rankings fueled mostly by number of deaths with 0.62, which is a distant third-place from Mississippi’s 0.29.

Another state with a reputation for bad drivers, has found redemption with this new study.

Massachusetts was listed as 48 on the list, because motorists there lead the nation in insured rates.

Delaware (fifth) and Vermont (seventh) joined New Jersey from the east coast.

And even though Delaware as the lowest DUI rates per driver than the Garden State, it has the most deaths - 40% of deaths occurred when the driver was above the legal limit for drinking.

Whereas Vermont was found the leader in the nation for DUIs per driver with 50 per thousand drivers.

Only 20 percent of the drivers in Tennessee are insured, making it one of the leased insured states in the US, however they are in the better half of the country for DUI per thousand drivers at 5.7.

The Lone Star state makes the top 10 list as well, coming in at ninth place, with the highest percentage of deaths coming from drunk drivers at 40% and yet it is in the better half of states for DUI arrests.  

And last on the list is Nevada, which was found to be the third worst state for traffic and speeding tickets and the 17th worst for DUIs – but 88 percent of Nevada drivers are insured.

The 10 states with the worst drivers

1. Florida: The Sunshine State was found to not only have the second lowest number of insured drivers in the nation, but ‘speeding tickets’ and ‘traffic tickets’ were Googled more than another other state.

2. Mississippi: This southern state had the 5th highest deaths resulting from vehicular incidents and 12th highest rate of DUI arrests per driver in the country. They also ranked 3rd worst in that category with only 77% insured. 

3. Oklahoma: Only 74% of drivers and they have one of the 15 worst scores in DUIs per thousand drivers (7.74), number of people killed per thousand drivers in vehicular incidents (.21) and rate of googling parking and traffic tickets (52.13).

4. New Jersey: The Garden State has the second most deaths per driver at .61, almost 90% of the drivers are insured.

5. Delaware: This state is unfortunately the only one with more deaths per driver than New Jersey. 

It has the lowest DUI rate per driver, only 40% of deaths occurred when the driver was above the legal limit for drinking, which is the 4th highest rate in the country.

6. Alabama: This southern state also has bad scores, with 33 percent of deaths resulting from a driver over the legal alcohol limit. 

7. Vermont: Vermont leads the nation in DUIs per driver with 50 per thousand drivers, but they have the lowest percentage of deaths resulting from drunk driving - 20%.

8. Tennessee: The Volunteer State is one of the least insured states with just 20 percent and it has the 18th highest number of deaths per thousand drivers.

9. Texas: Tragically for Texas it has the highest percentage of deaths coming from drunk drivers at 40% and yet it is in the better half of states for DUI arrests.

10. Nevada: This is the 3rd worst state for traffic and speeding tickets as well as being the 17th worst state for DUIs.

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