Top 5 States With the Worst Drivers: 2017
You probably think you live in the state with the worst drivers, but here’s an list based on real data.
To determine if a state has good or bad drivers, QuoteWizard Insurance sampled over two million data points from users on its website and juxtaposed it to Federal Highway Administration fatality data. In order to quantify overall driver standards for comparison, the company weighted various incident totals for each state with its occurrence percentage. Those rankings are a sum of weighted means calculated from the following incidents: accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, citations, and fatalities.
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Here are the top 5 states with the worst drivers, according to QuoteWizard Insurance’s study.
5. Washington
Drivers in Washington are less-than-stellar, going from ninth worst to fifth worst in just one year. Helping contribute to its rise on the list for worst drivers is the state’s accident rate, which jumped from 33rd worst to 14th worst in just one year.
4. South Carolina
Rising two spots from sixth worst to fourth worst this year is South Carolina. According to QuoteWizard, the state’s jump is due to a big bump in DUIs this past year.
3. Utah
Another study by QuoteWizard found the city of Salt Lake City, Utah, has the second worst drivers in the country. This means it’s not a huge surprise the state itself is ranked in the top five with the worst drivers. Utah’s drivers have actually improved in the past year after finishing at the top spot in 2016. The state improved in accidents, speeding, DUIs, and citations this year, but traffic deaths have increased for four years in a row and there have been more than 1,400 reported injuries from improper lane changes.
2. Minnesota
Climbing nine spots from 11th to second this year is Minnesota. The state saw big increases in accidents, speeding, and citations. Helping contribute to having some of the worst drivers in America is the state’s weather, which includes ice, snow storms, and tornadoes.
1. California
Last year, the state of California finished second worst, but this year it claims the title outright. In QuoteWizard’s other study that looked at the best and worst drivers in the U.S. by city, California was home to five of the top 10 cities with the worst drivers. That includes Sacramento, the worst driving city in America. Helping the state earn the dubious honor of having the worst drivers is an uptick in citations and DUIs, setting the worst standard in the U.S. for DUIs.
Jason Siu began his career in automotive journalism in 2003 with Modified Magazine, a property previously held by VerticalScope. As the West Coast Editor, he played a pivotal role while also extending his expertise to Modified Luxury & Exotics and Modified Mustangs. Beyond his editorial work, Jason authored two notable Cartech books. His tenure at AutoGuide.com saw him immersed in the daily news cycle, yet his passion for hands-on evaluation led him to focus on testing and product reviews, offering well-rounded recommendations to AutoGuide readers. Currently, as the Content Director for VerticalScope, Jason spearheads the content strategy for an array of online publications, a role that has him at the helm of ensuring quality and consistency across the board.
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