The team at SmartAsset— a consumer-focused financial information and advice site—wanted to find out which states had more irresponsible drivers than others. To find this information out, the team looked at four key data points including searches for “traffic” and “speeding” tickets, the number of fatalities per 100M miles driven, DUI arrests per 1000 drivers, and the percentage of drivers who are insured. Data was then collected from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, arrest data from the FBI and Department of Transportation, the Insurance Research Council, and Google Trends data. That data was then sorted based on metrics to rank the states based on how risky the drivers there are. “First, we ranked each state in each of the four metrics. We then computed each state’s average ranking, giving each metric equal weighting,” the site explains. “We used the average rankings to create our final scores. The state with the highest average ranking received a score of 100, while the state with the lowest average ranking received a score of 0.” Though it may not be the most definitive of lists, it’s an interesting peek into the roads we build nationwide, and the safety we all have when we are on them, whether we are in our cars or pushing strollers.

So according to the data collected, what states have the most irresponsible drivers?

  1. Florida and Colorado, tie
  2. Arizona
  3. Kentucky
  4. Nevada 6 Missouri
  5. Arkansas
  6. South Carolina
  7. California
  8. Tennessee The state with the most dangerous drivers is Mississippi, which has the highest number of uninsured drivers and has the second-highest fatality rate in the study.

What states have the most responsible drivers?

  1. Utah
  2. Maine
  3. New York
  4. Delaware
  5. Nebraska
  6. New Jersey
  7. New Hampshire
  8. Connecticut
  9. Pennsylvania And the state with the most responsible drivers is Massachusetts, a state that might offer the most safety on its roads. SmartAsset shared that traffic fatalities are on the rise again, highlighting how important driving safety is. Citing numbers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic deaths saw an uptick in 2020 from the year before, making it the deadliest year on American roads in 13 years. That stat alone is harrowing, but even with fewer cars on the road in 2020 due to the pandemic, it is clear driver safety — and pedestrian safety — is something we need to be mindful of.