Everyone often wonders while driving if they live in one of the states with the worst drivers. Most of us do this every morning commute. Now we have actual statistics to let us know where the worst drivers actually are!
Top 10 states with the worst drivers
States with bad drivers were ranked according to a number of factors. This list includes but is not limited to: careless driving, number of fatalities and drunk driving incidents.
1. New Mexico (tied for 1st)
1. Texas (tied for 1st )
3. Montana
4. South Carolina
5. Louisiana
6. Alabama (tied for 6th)
6. Hawaii (tied for 6th)
8. Arizona
9. Oregon
10. Nevada
Each of the above states ranked as dangerous areas for drivers. Most all were ranked due to speeding and distracted driving. Hawaii was considered one of the worst when it comes to breaking the speed limit. In fact, just over 48% of fatal accidents in Hawaii involved speeding. Hawaii had the highest percentage of speeding-related fatal accidents out of the top 10 states. South Carolina ranked as one of the worst for careless and/or distracted driving. This is due to the state having the largest number of cyclist and pedestrian deaths. Texas and New Mexico, tied for 1st both had the largest number in fatal car crashes. As well as, a high cyclist and pedestrian death rate. Texas also had one of the highest alcohol related fatal incidents.
What do all these states have in common?
While some states problems revolve around speeding and DUI’s (cough* Texas), all of them had distracted and/or careless driving listed as a reason for the number of road fatalities. Distracted driving is a huge issue. Especially when considering the number of cyclist and pedestrians being hit by vehicles. This number has steadily increased year after year. 
The easiest answer to this problem is for everyone to put down their phones! But we all know that just saying this does not mean it happens. Most everyone knows they shouldn’t be texting and driving but yet people continue to do it anyways. Some easy suggestions to help you get off your phone is to make an automated response while driving. Most smart phones can sense when you are in a moving vehicle and can be set to an automated reply.
- For example on an iPhone: go to settings – go to Do Not Disturb- set Do Not Disturb to “while driving mode”. If you want to set an auto reply while in Do Not Disturb: go to Do Not Disturb- Auto Reply- type in your Auto Reply that you are currently driving and will respond when done.
Make sure you are up to date on your Defensive Driving
While there will always be unavailable accidents on the road, driving defensively is the best was to keep safe. Making sure you know all the rules of the road, how to avoid accidents, and most importantly how to stay alert. Taking a defensive driving class can also help improve your insurance cost! As if you needed another reason. Make sure you and all of your friends take a defensive driving course every 2 years. The recommended amount. You can also take a course to dismiss a ticket you have received.
To sign up for a course, click here. Find your state and register. Then sit back and take the course at your own pace. Everything is online and at your disposal when ever you feel like it. The course was built by real comedians to make learning about driving safely as painless as possible. We know this isn’t the most exciting subject, so to make sure everyone pays attention we have added in some jokes. This helps with all of our short attention spans and helps us remember important information because it is now tied to an emotion (laughter). Sign up today and get driving defensively.
