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The Worst Drivers in the U.S. Are in Florida and Mississippi

2 minute read

The American southeast contains some of the country’s worst drivers, a new study found.

SmartAsset, a financial tech firm, conducted a survey to determine which states in the U.S. have the worst drivers, and concluded that four out of the top ten worst states are located in the southeast, including Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.

“Maybe it’s the heat causing road rage,” the study author wrote.

Bad drivers span across the country, too, and not always in the states with the worst reputations. According to the study, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Delaware made it into the top five states with the worst drivers.

States with the best drivers subverted stereotypes. According to the study, Massachusetts, which has a reputation for bad drivers ranked 48 on SmartAsset’s list.

To judge which state had the worst drivers, SmartAsset collected data across four metrics, including DUI per thousand drivers, deaths per thousand drivers, Google trends on driving tickets and the percentage of people who have auto insurance, indexed each factor for every state and determined the average score per state.

Here are the top 10 states with the worst drivers.

  • Florida
  • Mississippi
  • Oklahoma
  • New Jersey
  • Delaware
  • Alabama
  • Vermont
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Nevada
  • Here are the 10 states with the best drivers, according to the study:

  • Maine
  • Idaho
  • Massachusetts
  • Utah
  • North Dakota
  • Nebraska
  • Connecticut
  • Pennsylvania
  • Oregon
  • Hawaii
  • [SmartAsset]

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    Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com