If you brave the Jamestown commute, you perhaps think all the incapable drivers in the country live right here in New York. Whether they pull out in front of you and then slow down, ride your rear bumper for miles, ignore a red light or (gulp!) text—the driving behavior taking place on our nation's roads puts us all at risk.
The data wizards at the tech firm Smart Asset used the following metrics to establish the top ten:1
- Total number of drivers
- Number of DUI arrests
- Deaths per thousand drivers
- Percentage of insured drivers
- Number of Google searches about "speeding tickets" and "traffic tickets"
Does your state make this hall of shame? Check the listing:
Number 10 is Nevada, the home of glittering Las Vegas surrounded by miles and miles of lonely interstates. If you drive to Las Vegas to gamble, the biggest risk you take may be on I-15.
Texas comes in at Number 9. There are YouTube channels devoted solely to recorded examples of inept driving in the Lone Star State.
Number 8 is Tennessee. A Nashville tourist website quips: "Traffic rules in Nashville can be summed up easily: Hold on and pray."2
Seemingly reserved Vermonters came in at Number 7? We were surprised also. This advice is from the Vermont DMV website: "Never underestimate the other driver's capacity for mayhem."7
Alabama captures the sixth spot. An Alabama Highway Safety site displays this grave statistic: "In their lifetime, typical drivers in Alabama have a greater than one-in-three chance of being in a crash involving injury or death."4
Number 5 and 4 are both in the northeast: Delaware and New Jersey respectively. Tragically, both rank high in fatal crashes.
Oklahoma places third overall and tops the roster for percentage of uninsured drivers.
We're staying down south with number 2: Mississippi. According to the Mississippi DMV, no drivers education course is needed to obtain a drivers license for residents over 15 years of age.5 Hmm...I wonder if they should reconsider that.
And the winner (or loser) is: Florida. The state has the second highest number of uninsured motorists and residents search Google for "traffic tickets" and "speeding tickets" more often than those of any other state. Florida driver Katie Smith is one of the country's many YouTube dashcam filmers who record incapable auto owners while traveling the streets of her home state. Her goal is to bring awareness to the problem of inept driving and hopefully encourage Florida drivers to shape up.6
Here is the list again:
- Florida
- Mississippi
- Oklahoma
- New Jersey
- Delaware
- Alabama
- Vermont
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Nevada
Be careful out there, fellow auto owners, and let I-86 Truck & Auto Repair expertly perform scheduled auto maintenance to keep your car in top shape so you'll have one less thing to worry about. The team at I-86 Truck & Auto Repair wishes you safe travels - wherever you live.
Sources:
1https://smartasset.com/auto/states-with-the-worst-drivers
2http://nashvillest.com/2008/06/18/welcome-to-nashville-weve-got-bad-drivers
3http://dmv.vermont.gov/safety/RoadRage
4http://drivesafealabama.org/serious-stats/
5http://www.dmv.org/ms-mississippi/drivers-ed.php
6ocal10.com/news/florida/woman-posts-viral-videos-of-south-floridas-bad-drivers-