Safest/Most Dangerous States to Drive In

[Zeffy]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/auto-insurance/montana-is-the-most-dangerous-state-to-drive-in/ar-AAfVKt7#image=BBnrlKl|1

According to this article, Massachusetts is the safest state to drive in, while Montana is the most dangerous(?). New Jersey sits in at #3 safest, just behind New York.

Discuss if you think this article has some merit behind its rankings or if it's full of crap. I'm skeptical to see New Jersey and New York as some of the safest places to drive...

[freebrickproductions]

Alabama is #6. Seems pretty accurate to me.

[AsphaltPlanet]

I have a feeling that the inclusion of impaired driving statistics would strongly correlate to that list.

[SP Cook]

IIHS is a lobbying group of big insurance corporations that advocates for unreasonabably low speed limits and other anti-motorist laws. Its singular goal is a return to the NMSL so that "everyone" will violate the law and thus the unlucky victims of the random taxers can be charged more for insurance.    When the NMSL was finally eliminated, and traffic mortality and morbidity went DOWN, the junk science nature of this phony group was exposed.  Yet people still take them seriously.

The goal of this article seems to be mandatory seat belt laws and even lower BAC "drunk" driving laws.  It spews out various stats about this.  But, being junk science, it has no proof whatsoever that either thing has anything to do with the subject.

Consider the more logical possible causes:

-  States that do well tend to be either small, or have a large part of the population in urban areas.  Urban areas have good EMT systems and short distances from good hospitals.  States that did poorly tend to be large, or have lots of people spread out in rural areas. 

- States that do well tend to have wealthy populations.  Wealthy people have new cars.  New cars have the most modern safety gear, such as the most modern air bags, crash avoidance, lane keeping, and the most modern crash worthiness designs.  States that did poorly tend to be poor.  Poor people have old cars that lack those features and which may be in disrepair.

- States that do well tend to well tend to have generally healthy populations.  A fit and healthy person has a better chance of surviving any trauma.  States that did poorly tend to have large %ages of people who are over-weight and high tobacco use.  People who are out of shape and in poor health have a much greater chance of not surviving a trauma due to things like stress induced heart attacks. 

- States that do well tend to have a combination of low speed city streets and modern high speed highways. City streets = low speed crashes.  High speed multi lane highways are, of course, the safest type of road, with the most designed in safety features.  States that did poorly tend to have large amounts of rural two-lane roads, where speeds will be high, but without the safety features of an interstate.   States that did poorly also tend to have lots of hills, and having a hill beside the road is a lot worse thing in crash than having a flat farmer's field.

[SD Mapman]

I wonder how these statistics are influenced by out-of-state drivers who don't understand how to drive in other states. For instance, I can't handle urban areas very well, and I know of crazy tourists who drive ridiculously unsafe because they think there's fewer regulations out here.

In other words, I think that the study is bunk (I feel tons safer driving in SD, WY, ND, or MT than I do anywhere else).

[PHLBOS]

Yet, two of the "safest" states, MA & NJ, have higher (if not the highest) auto insurance rates in the country (compared with other states).

[jeffandnicole]

Generally, NJ is always considered a 'safe' state to drive in because we have a low number of fatalities in relation to the number of miles travelled. Many of the accidents that do occur - and there's a lot of them - occur at slower speeds where injuries are not as harsh.   So while we may have a relatively high number of accidents and deaths on the road, the fact that we have a lot more miles driven gives us a good, 'safe' ratio.

[StogieGuy7]

Yet, two of the "safest" states, MA & NJ, have higher (if not the highest) auto insurance rates in the country (compared with other states).

Both states would seem to be better candidates for "most dangerous" to drive in - if you don't want to be involved in a collision. These guys looked at a sliver of statistics involving fatalities per capita, which always favors rural areas with open roads and low populations who drive much longer distances. On the other hand, densely populated areas tend to have large populations who drive fewer miles and more slowly. 

So, the accident rates in the former states are (much) lower than those in the latter states, but the odds of being killed in an accident are higher in the former than the latter.  But, if your narrative is to besmirch higher speed limits, this misleading study works just fine. 

Let me ask the question this way: say you're from a suburban area around a mid-sized midwestern city (neutral ground).  Where would you feel more comfortable driving: in Boston or on the New Jersey Turnpike, on through Montana or South Dakota?   

Now my opinion: Boston, in particular, is very challenging to drive in - New Jersey has very congested and old roads.....and both states have some of the worst drivers anywhere.  Personally, I rank New Jersey drivers as the worst of any state, beating New York because upstate drivers are actually pretty good.  Long Island has the absolute worst in the USA.  Just my opinion, but I feel confident that there's truth in it. 

[Max Rockatansky]

The rates are per 100,000 people, the average is going to be much lower in states with more people because the sheer volume of people is going to drive the average death per 100,000 down.  There is no way in hell that a state like New Jersey or New York is a safe place to drive than some rural state out in the west with next to no population.  I would like to see this slide show redone just based on raw number of fatalities in order and see how different it really is....I'm surprised 3,000 in California didn't take the crown last year.

For what it's worth I always felt safest in rural Nevada or Utah out of any of the lower 48 states.  Simple reason being that there isn't any people in those states aside from some concentrated urban areas like Salt Lake City, Vegas and Reno.  The states that I always felt the least safe were; New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Florida and of course the grand daddy of crappy driving my home state...California.

With that in mind, I'm really surprised the fatality count in Massachusetts is so low.  Montana doesn't really surprise me cracking 200, there seems to be an influx of stupidity that comes via tourism.

[Ned Weasel]

Let me ask the question this way: say you're from a suburban area around a mid-sized midwestern city (neutral ground).  Where would you feel more comfortable driving: in Boston or on the New Jersey Turnpike, on through Montana or South Dakota?   

I'm from a suburban area in the Midwest, and I'd feel much more comfortable driving on the New Jersey Turnpike than through Montana or South Dakota, hands down, no second thought, final answer, Regis.

[jeffandnicole]

So...why do you guys feel NJ is the least safe state (or one of the least safe states)?

[jakeroot]

So...why do you guys feel NJ is the least safe state (or one of the least safe states)?

People tend to think that, wherever they live is, the armpit of driving. Pretty much every major metropolitan area has some part of the population who say the same thing: "Driver's here suck!"

[The Nature Boy]

I don't know if I've ever moved somewhere where I WASN'T told "yeah, the drivers here suck."

[jeffandnicole]

So...why do you guys feel NJ is the least safe state (or one of the least safe states)?

People tend to think that, wherever they live is, the armpit of driving. Pretty much every major metropolitan area has some part of the population who say the same thing: "Driver's here suck!"

Agreed.  Which is why I asked the question, because the 2 people that responded feeling NJ is unsafe are NOT from NJ or the nearby area!

[Max Rockatansky]

So...why do you guys feel NJ is the least safe state (or one of the least safe states)?

People tend to think that, wherever they live is, the armpit of driving. Pretty much every major metropolitan area has some part of the population who say the same thing: "Driver's here suck!"

Agreed.  Which is why I asked the question, because the 2 people that responded feeling NJ is unsafe are NOT from NJ or the nearby area!

Actually I lived a good decade in New England and have a lot of family in the Tom's River area.  I've always found the traffic volume of New Jersey to incredibly heavy due to the fact that it's edged between some of the more major cities in the U.S. and by that extension have incredibly aggressive drivers.  The surface roads are a severe problem especially out in more remote areas of the state; routes like SR 70, 72 and US 40 come to mind as vastly underdeveloped and in need of expansion.  It was always very common to see wrecks in the state but rarely what I would consider serious, most of the time it was due to traffic and not speed.  In just last year I recall a massive backup that was about 15 miles long on 72 just last year that effectively ruined a weekend family reunion.   

Now that's not an opinion I hold just because New Jersey is New Jersey but it's something that I see that's common in urban areas in general.  D.C. and Baltimore are nearby just to the south which contributes greatly to the overall misery in addition to unsafe nature of the I-95 corridor.  San Francisco, San Diego and L.A. all contribute to the swath of bad driving habits out here in California and it shows with 3,000 deaths last year.  By the worst city that I worked and commuted in was Chicago.  Almost any Interstate freeway in the city becomes undriveable as you approach downtown which leads to many of the accidents which occur there.  It's almost impossible to go fast enough to kill someone but sure as all hell isn't safe.  The surface roads like Lake Shore Drive are an adventure in their own right as well.  Florida wasn't much fun either, especially since the population has exploded in the last 30 years and has out paced infrastructure expansion.

Now other states I've lived in like Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah were usually much more high speed.  Usually this led to more stand alone fatalities when someone was out in the boon docks driving like they were on a suburban freeway and couldn't handle the road they were on.  With that in mind though the highways tend to be of a better design simply due to the infrastructure being newer.  Remote or even mountain roads rarely ever saw significant congestion to be an issue for a skilled driver.

[Rothman]

I still hold to the fact that people think New York City drivers are awful (and therefore, by association, all New York drivers) because they go to the City and see all the misbehavior by cars that have Connecticut license plates. 

[noelbotevera]

MSN is basically full of clickbait. I don't believe one word they say, and in fact, one of my ads lead to MSN...I tried it, wow it was full of lies.