Ask anyone who drives if they are a safe driver and most will claim to be a good one. But the law of averages and actual statistics paint a very different picture. Some states have particularly bad drivers. The insurance industry publication CarInsurancecomparison.com has some interesting things to say about Texas drivers. We placed fourth on their 2017 “bad driver list.” The higher the ranking, the worse things are. The categories used to come up with this ranking were: fatality-rate per 100 million miles traveled, failure to obey basic laws (traffic signals, seat belts, distracted driving laws, invalid driver’s license, drunk driving, speeding) and careless driving. The data was compiled from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) figures. Texas has ranked as a top-five state with the worst drivers since the first study was conducted in 2012. The only good news was that we dropped from last year’s survey. But for the past four consecutive years, the behavior that has killed the most people is drunk driving, and this year is no different. A total of 1,552 fatal crashes with an alcohol-impaired driver to blame was good for fifth place in that category. Our best (safest) ranking was 20th in the speeding accident lawsuit category. Nevertheless, it’s an improvement over the previous year. CarInsurancecomparison.com said the Lone Star state had the worst drivers in the country in their 2016 report, which revealed that 3,558 died on Texas roads, highest in the U.S. Actually, that year Texans tied with Louisianans for the worst. In the 2016 report, Texas was the only state to rank among the 14 worst in each of the study’s measured categories. Our 2016 results:
- 9th in fatalities per 100 million drivers
- 12th in failure to obey traffic laws
- 3rd in drunk driving
- 9th in speeding
- 14th in careless driving