This probably didn’t happen in Montana, but you get the idea.
Well, it’s official. Everybody loves to complain how terrible all other drivers are, and one constantly reads and hears the claim that “Billings drivers are the worst,” or, in the alternative, “Montana drivers are the worst.”
In a nationwide ranking compiled by CarInsuranceComparison.com, Montana tied with South Carolina as home to the worst drivers. The ranking gave each states points for:
- Fatalities rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.
- Failure to obey (percentage of fatal crashes that involved traffic tignals, not wearing seat belts, and driving with an invalid driver license).
- Drunk driving (percentage of fatal crashes that involved alcohol).
- Speeding (percentage of driving fatalities that were speed-related).
- Careless driving (pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities per 100,000 population).
We ranked No. 1 for drunk driving, which, alas, is no big surprise, third for fatality rate, fifth for speeding, seventh for failure to obey (think of all the red-light runners in Billings alone!) and 44th, somehow, in careless driving.
The way the rankings work, the more points the better. And as the study authors point out, poor Montana and South Carolina were tied with 60 points each, “a staggering 148 points behind” Minnesota, the state with the best drivers.
All I can say in our defense is that I’m from Minnesota and still get back there on a regular basis, and I believe Minnesotans spend just as much time as we do complaining about the way everybody else drives.
