Before you post that angry traffic tweet about how you’re the only person in your region of the U.S. who knows how to drive a vehicle, you may want to check up on facts to see which states actually made the cut.
As we near the end of another year, it’s that time again—time to rank the bests and worsts from the last 12 months. A CarInsuranceComparison.com study released rankings of the top-10 states with the worst drivers, and Montana kept its position at the top of the charts from last year. Rankings come from fatal-crash statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, breaking the numbers up type of accident—fatal crashes involving failure to obey traffic laws, drunken driving, careless driving with pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, speeding and total fatalities per 100 million miles traveled.
The administration has records dating back to 1975, and reports fatality numbers are a whopping 67 percent lower than they were that year. Keep in mind that for the current study, statistics from fatal crashes are what mainly decide the state rankings.
Curious as to if your state made the list? Mine did, which isn’t really surprising (and it also proves to the rest of the world that Texans don’t ride horses everywhere).
Mississippi came in 10th overall in the rankings of worst drivers in the U.S., making a pretty big jump from being ranked at No. 23 last year. Its fatality ratings per 100 million miles traveled settle in at third. Ninth overall goes to Delaware, where careless-driving rates are the second highest in the country.
Tied for seventh are North Dakota and Hawaii (wait, Hawaii? Why drive anywhere when you can just take a stroll down the beach?). North Dakota takes first for drunk driving, while Hawaii ranks fourth in that category.
Arizona came in sixth, making a move in the wrong direction following a No. 14 ranking last year. In the careless-driving rankings, Arizona ranks No. 3.
Fifth goes to Louisiana, where roads still haven’t completely recovered from the U.S. taking away state funding for highways during Prohibition. Just like Louisiana failed to obey the country’s Prohibition movement that raised the drinking age to 21, the state ranks No. 1 in failure to obey traffic signs and laws.
Texas came in at fourth on the list, and the state is currently in the top 20 in each of the aforementioned fatal-driving categories. Its lowest ranking is 18th in failure to obey, and Texas’ numbers of drunk-driving incidents land it at No. 6 in that category.
New Mexico and South Carolina tied for second in the country, and South Carolina made a slight improvement—last year, the state tied for the No. 1 spot with Montana. New Mexico climbed 17 spots in the rankings (it’s quite odd when “climbing in the rankings” by that much is a bad thing) from 2014.
In the worst-driver rankings, Montana took the top spot by a landslide. The state also ranks No. 1 in fatalities per 100 million miles traveled, and, like Texas, is in the top 20 for every category of fatal-driving incidents.
There’s a full table of states and their respective rankings in each category here, so if your homeland didn’t make the top 10 overall, you can still check out where it landed. Meanwhile, I’m off to invent a flying carpet in order to avoid all of these dangerous drivers (and the standstill traffic that they cause) in Texas.
Photo credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Contact the author at alanis.king@jalopnik.com.