There are conflicting reports as to whether Utah drivers are some of the best in the country, or completely crazy. The opinions are reflected in two different surveys. One is a statistical survey on criteria such as fatality rates, tickets, careless driving, drunk driving, and failure to wear seatbelts and obey traffic signs, the other based on the opinions of those who drive or have been passengers on Utah roads. The results are quite bipolar, and we are interested to hear what you personally think!
The First Survey
Drawing on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the National Motorists Association, and using the criteria mentioned above, the website CarInsuranceComparison.com reached the following conclusion:
The five states with the worst drivers are (in order of ranking):
1. Louisiana
2. South Carolina
3. Mississippi
4. Texas
5. Alabama
The five states with the best drivers (in order of ranking) are:
1. Vermont
2. Utah
3. New Hampshire
4. Minnesota
5. Oregon
High incidences of careless driving combined with a high fatality rate were the most influential factors in determining the worst drivers. Most of the states in the top 10 worst drivers category finished worse than 25th in these rankings, all but Missouri being in the bottom twenty in both categories. The careless driving category included many drivers who were ticketed for talking on cell phones while driving, so it is obvious that paying attention makes a huge difference, and more importantly, saves lives.
Utah attained its high ranking by being the state with the least offences for drunk driving, and by achieving high rankings for the least fatalities (14th), obedience to traffic signs (12th), and least tickets (20th). The worse ranking for Utah was 23rd in the careless driving category. If you took part in our website survey, you might be surprised at those rankings.
The ASA Survey
We recently began conducting a survey on the ASA website to find out what Utah drivers thought of each other. At the time of writing, of a total of 136 votes, 63 respondents said that we are Absolutely crazy, 48 said that we are Not good drivers, 23 said we are Average drivers, 2 respondents voted for us as Good drivers, while so far no one has voted us as Excellent drivers.
Our survey was inspired by the recent trending of #utahdrivers on Twitter, whose Tagline states that “In Utah, 25% of the crashes are because of a failure to Yield to the Right of Way. The other 75% is because they let Monkeys apply for Driver’s Licenses.”
It’s obvious that are sentiments of each other’s driving is the result of emotion, and most posts on #utahdrivers are posted immediately after some incident. The truth statistically however is that we are the second best bunch of drivers in America, something we should be proud of, but something we can improve on as well.
There is a direct correlation between our great driving records and some of the lowest auto insurance rates in the country. Let’s aim for #1 next year by working on those careless driving statistics. Put away those cell phones and other hand held communication devices while driving, keep your eyes on the road, your hands on the wheel, and let’s lower those insurance rates even more! After all, statistics show that we’re actually Mavericks, not Monkeys!
