Nation’s worst drivers: Utahns

[accadacca]

After looking at 2 million data points nationally about such things as car crashes, traffic tickets and drunken driving, a new study reaches a dark conclusion about the Beehive State.

"Utah's drivers are the worst in the nation," says the study by QuoteWizard, a website for comparing auto insurance.

It says Utah is "second [worst] in the rankings for both accidents and speeding, as well as fourth-worst for minor citations."

It adds this sting: "Surprising for a state known for its non-drinking populace, Utah actually made the top 10 for DUIs, coming in at number nine."

It offered a sliver of good news.

"On the bright side, Utah missed our list of worst state for fatalities, so at least fewer people are dying in all those accidents."

QuoteWizard released its rankings Thursday. It said it sampled incident data supplied from drivers who used its website, and extrapolated findings with federal fatality data.

This is not the first study to give Utah drivers poor ratings, although some also give them high marks.

A study by Allstate Insurance earlier this year ranked Salt Lake City drivers a mediocre 78th best among the nation's 200 largest cities for safety. Drivers in West Valley City ranked No. 87.

Insure.com two years ago ranked Utah drivers as the 10th rudest in the nation.

But on the other end of the spectrum, CarInsuranceComparison.com ranked Utahns as the nation's second-best drivers in 2014, leaning heavily on low fatality and drunken-driving rates then.

After ranking Utah in the cellar, the new study says the nation's other worst drivers are in California and Virginia.

"The economy might be to blame for California's low rankings," the study said. It explained that a recent upswing in the economy there increased the number of miles its motorists are driving, "and more driving means more accidents."

Virginia is the worst for speeding and No. 2 in citations, QuoteWizard said, but the state doesn't end up on lists for the worst accident or fatality rates. "It seems that despite all that law breaking, they don't get into many fender benders."

The study said the nation's best drivers are in Rhode Island, followed by Florida and Mississippi.

Rhode Island has "extremely low fatalities per licensed driver" and "good scores across the board," the study said. But the state is so small — 48 miles long and 37 miles wide — that with road trips, "by the time the damage is done, they're probably past the state line and it's Connecticut's problem."

The study also sought to answer a few rivalry questions such as whether East Coast or West Coast drivers are the best.

"The East Coast wins with a 13 percent margin of victory. Not too surprising, considering two of the worst states — Utah and California — are on the West Coast, while the East Coast has Rhode Island, the best state overall," it said, apparently without a close examination of Utah's place on the map.

The study also looked at whether Republican or Democratic states have the best drivers, based on how they voted in the presidential election this year.

"Republican-leaning states have better drivers," by a 7 percent margin, it said. "Democrat-leaning states on average come in behind Republican states in terms of accidents, speeding, DUIs , fatalities and citations overall."

http://www.sltrib.com/news/4654990-1...-utahns?page=2

[Iceaxe]

After reading their data points I would say it suggests Utah does a much better job of traffic enforcement than other states.

As someone who has driven all over the US I can guarantee you that Utah is not even in the bottom half when it comes to bad drivers.

Deaths per miles driven is the ultimate score card for poor drivers, everything else is just fluff.

[kiwi_outdoors]

Utah drivers bad? That seems odd to me. I am from Calif and have driven a lot in UT over the last decade (on vacation). Never had any particular issues.

NOW - back here in CA - today - wife and I parked outside the bakery and got boxed in by subsequent parkers front and rear - first time that has happened - darned inconsiderate. We waited for the front car to return, before exiting our parking spot. Rear car was a big chevy work truck

[rockgremlin]

Utah is notorious for the "speed enforcers" - those self righteous chumps that camp out in the passing lane either going exactly the speed limit, or 5mph less...regardless of the long line of traffic stacked up on their bumper waiting for an opportunity to pass.

[Rob L]

Utah is notorious for the "speed enforcers" - those self righteous chumps that camp out in the passing lane either going exactly the speed limit, or 5mph less...regardless of the long line of traffic stacked up on their bumper waiting for an opportunity to pass.

Come to the UK and try driving on the 3-lane motorways (freeways) without seeing a Middle-Lane Hogger.

It is very frustrating, considering that I do many of my journeys by motorway, and inconsiderate drivers are hogging the middle lane (it is illegal to "undertake" in the UK, (case precedent here ) as it is in many US States (I believe).

So you have my sympathy.
Rob

[Iceaxe]

Utah is notorious for the "speed enforcers" - those self righteous chumps that camp out in the passing lane either going exactly the speed limit, or 5mph less...regardless of the long line of traffic stacked up on their bumper waiting for an opportunity to pass.

The sad part is if the UHP would strongly enforce the left lane law for a couple of month's this would nearly disappear. It's like single drivers in the car pool lane, it's not enforced so many ignore the law.

And left lane hugs are not a Utah thing, it's common in most states.

[BruteForce]

My theory:

Too many phone distracted drivers going slow in the fast lane, then fail to yield and slide over to the right. Too many scared drivers in all lanes terrified to exceed the speed limit.

Then, once you head South into Utah county, most everyone there believes Jesus is on their shoulder and cross over 3-4 lanes at once without signalling while doing 85mph.

And finally, every woman in a mini-van thinks she's driving a Ferrari and wants to race and/or show just how fast that mini-van will go!

[rockgremlin]

My theory:

Too many phone distracted drivers going slow in the fast lane, then fail to yield and slide over to the right. Too many scared drivers in all lanes terrified to exceed the speed limit.

Then, once you head South into Utah county, most everyone there believes Jesus is on their shoulder and cross over 3-4 lanes at once without signalling while doing 85mph.

And finally, every woman in a mini-van thinks she's driving a Ferrari and wants to race and/or show just how fast that mini-van will go!

That first paragraph is spot on. Anymore it's rare to see anyone behind the wheel who HASN'T got a cell phone glued to their face. Grrrrr...!!

[Sombeech]

Ranking a State of drivers by the Highway Patrol statistics is poor judgement.

It adds this sting: "Surprising for a state known for its non-drinking populace, Utah actually made the top 10 for DUIs, coming in at number nine."

This just means that for those who do drink alcohol in Utah, they don't handle it very well.