Insider Monkey

25 States with the Worst Drivers

Ty Haqqi
12 min read

In This Article:

In this article, we will be taking a look at the 25 states with the worst drivers. To skip our detailed analysis, you can go directly to see the 5 states with the worst drivers.

Ever since motor vehicles became popular over a century ago, accidents related to motor vehicles have continued to exist as well. This is especially true for the United States, which has over 300 million vehicles, and is among the countries that produce the most cars in the world. It also ranks in the top 10 for cars per capita in the world, and the demand for vehicles continues to rise each year.

There are plenty of reasons why the U.S. is a lot more car-centric than Europe, which is equal if not better, in terms of being developed. While the mid-20th century saw Europe following America's footsteps in terms of adapting cities to facilitate cars, it later realized that car-centric cities were very detrimental to the environment and moved to promoting public transportation and alternative means of transport such as walking or cycling. This is why, in America, people used a car or small truck for 87% of their overall trips, as many cities don't have proper public transportation systems or even sidewalks to allow for easy walking, all of which spells trouble especially for the states with the worst drivers (see 15 Most Walkable Cities in the US).

Initially, there were very few safety features afforded to cars, which is why the initial fatality rates from car accidents very extremely high, with a peak reached in 1937 of 30.8 deaths per 100,000 people. Currently, the fatality rate is 14.3 per 100,000 people which is a massive improvement of 54% but still an understatement considering how car production per capita has increased significantly over the decades. A much more accurate assessment of improvement in terms of safety can be made by the fact that the motor-vehicle death rate was 18.65 deaths for every 100 million driven in 1920, which is now just 1.5 deaths per 100 million driven, an improvement of more than 90%. A lot of this can be attributed to some of the top safety features implemented by the biggest car companies by revenue which have greatly improved the probability of surviving a car crash.

True for everyone but particularly relevant for the states with the worst drivers is having car insurance, which is a legal requirement. While car insurance has existed in one form or the other for over a century, it only became a legal requirement in most states in the 1970s, and nowadays, the car insurance industry is huge contributor to the global insurance sector and provides a major chunk of revenue to some of the biggest insurance companies in the world. State Farm is the biggest car insurance company in the world whose premiums written exceed $46 billion annually, followed by The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR), Geico and The Allstate Corporation (NYSE:ALL).

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