The States Where the Best (and Worst) Drivers Live

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There are some rankings that you don’t want your home state to show up on. For instance, you don’t want to end up on the worst state flag list or the most miserable state list. And you most certainly don’t want to take the top spot on the country’s worst driving list.

Alas, my home state of Montana tied for first place with South Carolina as the state with the worst drivers. That’s according to CarInsuranceComparison.com, which said it considered five factors when ranking America’s worst drivers.

“[CarInsuranceComparison.com] ranks states based on a scoring system that includes fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, percentage of fatal crashes that involved failure to obey certain traffic laws, fatal drunken driving crashes, speeding crashes and careless driving collisions,” the Great Falls Tribune said.

Although Montana ranked better than all but six states when it comes to careless driving, “Montana drivers were among the 10 worst in all of the remaining categories,” CarInsuranceComparison.com said.

On the other end of the rankings, Minnesota drivers are the best in the U.S., closely followed by Iowa and New Hampshire, the report said.

Here are the country’s worst driving states:

  1. Montana (tied for first).
  2. South Carolina (tied for first).
  3. Texas.
  4. North Dakota.
  5. Delaware.

These states are home to the best drivers:

  1. Minnesota.
  2. Iowa.
  3. New Hampshire.
  4. Alaska.
  5. Connecticut.

You can find the entire list of 50 states and the District of Columbia here.

I’m not surprised that Montana did well in the careless driving category. Montanans are on the road a lot. We have to travel long distances to get from one town to another. We also have to drive in some pretty unsavory weather and road conditions in the winter. I’d like to think that most people are cautious and safe in that respect.

Unfortunately, Montana maintained its status as the worst state for drunken driving. South Carolina had the highest fatality rate.

How are the drivers in your state? Share your thoughts below or on our Facebook page.

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