Time to Really Find Out: Does Florida Have The Worst Drivers?

This post was published on Sep 6, 2017, and updated on Dec 9, 2020. 

It may come as no surprise to people in Florida that they have a reputation as the worst drivers in the country. A finance company called SmartAsset recently compiled a survey that may have proved that reputation to be based in fact.

According to the 2017 survey, drivers in Florida have made the state number one when it comes to unsafe driving habits. In fact, it is the second year in a row (2016 and 2017 winner!) that the state has been given the distinction. The group based its findings on several factors, including the number of drivers in the state, the percentage of divers maintaining auto insurance, DUI arrests, traffic citations issued, and people involved in fatal accidents.

On an interesting side note, the website also found that people in Florida are more likely than others to search the Internet for “traffic tickets” and “speeding tickets.” Floridians also have the fewest number of insured drivers in the United States.

According to the 2017 survey, the states falling behind Florida when it comes to bad drivers are Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Delaware, Alabama, Vermont, Tennessee, Texas, and Nevada. What does that mean for you? If you are driving through the state, be on the lookout for the other drivers on the road.

So the question becomes, has anything changed over the past few years? And does Florida still have the worst drivers in the US? Well, we did some digging to see what the sunshine states lands in the rude, impolite, and downright bad driving scale. 

So let’s cut right to it, according to Smart Asset, the company that created the initial survey in 2017, Florida now ranks number 4 in the US for worst drivers!

It’s an improvement for sure, but it’s not anything to write home about. Especially when you think that only Tennessee, Nevada, and Mississippi are head of us. (number 3, 2, and 1 respectively). Good thing we have our car accident lawyers in Nashville ready to help anyone who has been injured in a road rage incident or an accident of any kind. 

According to the study: “Florida has the lowest rate of insured drivers in the study. Just 73.3% of drivers in the state are insured. Florida also has the 10th-highest Google search ratio in the study, with ticket-related searches coming up 1.70 times more often than gasoline-related searches. There are 1.41 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles driven in Florida, the 11th-highest rate for this metric in the study.”

Now, when you speak to most South Floridians, they will usually blame the bad driving on tourists or snowbirds, the elderly transplants who send half the year in Florida to avoid the cold winters in the North. And most will say that New York drivers are the real problem. But New York comes in almost last, ranked number 45 of all states for the worst drivers. so how can that be possible? 

Well, I might have something to do with how the results are calculated. 

The top states with the worst drivers were ranked by how they stacked up in four categories. 

• Number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.
• Number of DUIs per 1,000 drivers.
• Percentage of drivers who are insured (and thus, the number of drivers that are uninsured but still driving).
• Traffic ticket inquiries based on Google Search Trends.

So there you have it, Florida is no longer the state with the worst drivers in the US, after 3 years, we have moved to the 4th position. It’s nothing to celebrated, but hey, at least we are no longer number 1!

If you are involved in an accident in West Palm Beach, you have legal rights. Reach out to our team of attorneys today for assistance. Your first consultation will be held at no cost to you or your family.

States With the Worst Drivers