It Turns Out New Jersey Drivers Really Aren’t the Worst

Pennsylvania drivers are the 15th-worst in the nation—and the worst in the Northeast—thanks in part to higher-than average drunken driven rates and higher in-state crash fatality statistics, according to a report from Car Insurance Comparison.

New Jersey drivers, by comparison, ranked down at 32nd overall, getting dinged for higher-than-average ticketing and careless driving.

Car Insurance Comparison ranked each state according to five categories—drunken driven, tickets, careless driving, fatalities per 100 million miles driven and failure to obey both traffic signals and seat belt laws, with higher scores indicating worse performance.

Pennsylvania was third-worst in the nation when it came to failure to obey violations, and scored 36 in fatalities and 32 in drunken driving, with a total score that ranked the state just behind Georgia, Tennessee and Nevada.

In New Jersey, drivers were worst when it comes to careless driving, where the state scored 38, and received a 29 in the average number of tickets, but the state scored low in fatalities and drunken driving, where it got a 9 and a 14, respectively.

Our neighbors to the north in New York also ranked poorly—22nd in the nation, 3rd in the Northeast—primarily because of careless driving and tickets.

If you want to avoid the worst drivers in America, stay out of Dixie—the six worst are all Southern states, with Louisiana topping the list. The Bayou State scored among the five worst in the nation for careless driving, and was far worse than average across the board.

The best? Vermonters, who were near the lowest scores in every category except drunken driving, where the state scored a 28.