Officially Documented – UT Drivers are the worst in the US

Utah is the worst state for drivers of all 50 states.  They actually did a nationwide study that proved you are not wrong when you wonder if these are the worst drivers around.  

We joke about the number of bad drivers in Utah. I’ve lived in several states and seen bad drivers in each one so when I’d heard people talking about Utah being the worst, I just dismissed it as more of the same. It’s NOT. We’re really that bad.  

I was stunned when I was watching the news on TV Monday night as they talked about the Utah State Highway Patrol reporting 174 CRASHES THAT DAY and 450 accidents over the New Year’s weekend. Other surveys show Utah as being one of the most sober states so I thought we’d get a score near 0 for that and must be that much worse in the other categories.  

We score badly on accidents, DUIs and speeding tickets and with just the number of drivers sharing the roads here. We beat California, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio to claim the top spot as THE WORST state for drivers. I would think California would beat us just for the number of distracted drivers since they have to be leading the league in texting while driving.  They have to be the most entitled state, right?   

My wife and I drive SR-18 between here and Diamond Valley regularly and it’s scary to watch the number of vehicles that leave the road during every single trip. On Sunday, as we were driving, I told her to watch the truck in front of us as he went onto the shoulder and nearly into the dirt. I will never ride my bike on that road and don’t know why others do. There are paved bike trails all over by Snow Canyon.  

One thing we should probably cover too is the meaning of a yellow traffic light.  In some states that is an indication the light is about to turn red and that brings traffic flow to a stop.  Here that yellow light means, "Gun it or you won't make it!".

'Still puzzled how we lost to California for bad drivers. What they didn’t share in the study is the other stuff we do poorly here.  Like drivers who don’t know how to take turns. When merging, alternate lanes/vehicles. It’s pretty simple. When you’ve got a dog in the bed of your truck and you’re doing 75 on the highway, put the dog in the cab!!!  When it comes to safety, I don’t even care about the speeds. Most of our interstate highways have posted speed limits of 75 or 80 and people do around 90. That’s OK if you are going straight and paying attention. It’s the other stuff that gets us such a bad reputation. Let's be safe out there.  And in here.