Which States Truly Have The Worst Drivers? And Where Does Utah Rank?

I've lived in 10 different state in the USA during my lifetime and one common link among them all is that the residents of the different locales think they have the worst drivers in America.

It's easy to believe, especially if you just got home after some numbskull just cut you off in traffic and another thickheaded driver had his left blinker on and then turned right in front of you.

But in an attempt to formalize everyone's complaints, several different websites studied the habits and records of drivers and came up with a handful of lists that give an indication of the real worst drivers.

The top 10 worst driving states in a list compiled by SmartAsset.com and publicized by  worldpopulationreview.com has the worst drivers in the USA as Mississippians, with our neighbors in Nevada coming in a close second.

Utah ranked as the 35th worst drivers in the country (or the 16th best!).

SmartAsset's analysis evaluated three categories to determine the states with the worst drivers. The first was the percentage of insured drivers within the state. The next was the number of DUI arrests per every thousand drivers. The third was the number of fatalities per 100,000 miles driven.

WalletHub.com went a little deeper, entering 31 areas of evaluation in their study and came up with Hawaii as the state with the worst drivers. Mississippi, which was named worst by SmartAsset, was ranked 19th worst by WalletHub. Nevada was seventh worst, while Utah finished as the 20th worst among the 50 states.

A study by BankRate.com, used four key categories: Cost, driving quality, safety and weather. BankRate found California to be the worst state for drivers, followed by Louisiana and Maryland. Utah ranked very well in this study, finishing as the third best state for drivers in the country. Nevada was 14th.

Another study, this one by Lending Tree, has Massachusetts with the highest rate at just over 61 incidents per 1,000 drivers, while Arkansas has the best drivers at just about 15 incidents.

Other states with good drivers include Michigan, Vermont, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.  California tied with Rhode Island for the second-highest drunk driving rate, at just over three per one thousand drivers, while the District of Columbia has the highest at almost four.

Utah is rated 10th worst by Lending Tree, with 32.1 recorded incidents per 1,000 drivers.

While we'll always feel like the drivers where we live are the absolute worst, as it turns out, a lot of other people around the country feel the same way -- and they're right.

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