Massachusetts Drivers Are Second Best In Country: Study

MASSACHUSETTS — Boston and Massachusetts have long had a reputation for having lots of bad drivers, but a new study says reality doesn't come close to matching the reputation.

The law firm of Friend, Levinson & Turner released a report this month looking at which states had the worst drivers, and Massachusetts was ranked 49th. New York, another state with a notorious reputation for bad driving, was 50th.

The law firm looked at the state’s number of DUI arrests per capita, fatal collisions per capita, uninsured drivers and how many internet searches were made in Massachusetts for terms like “how to get out of a ticket.”

Those numbers then were used to score the state from 0-100, from best to worst, the higher the score the worse a state’s drivers.

As part of its findings, the firm revealed Massachusetts scored 0.7. Around 163 DUI arrests per capita are made in the state, six fatal collisions per capita typically occur, and 6.2 percent of the Bay State's drivers are uninsured.

Looking at regional trends, the firm found Southern states made up half of the top ten worst drivers in the country. It also found Western states made up one-third of the worst.

Among the top 10 states with the worst drivers in America, the firm found that high rates of fatal collisions and the number of people arrested for DUIs were commonalities.

Below are the 10 states ranked as the worst in America by Friend, Levinson & Turner:

1. New Mexico
2. Arkansas
3. Alabama
4. Wyoming
5. Montana
6. Delaware
7. Louisiana
8. South Carolina
9. Tennessee
10. Missouri

New Mexico was found to have the worst drivers in America, partially fueled by a high number of crashes resulting in fatalities — 25 per capita — and the amount of uninsured motorists in the state, 21 percent.

Although Wyoming had a relatively small number of uninsured drivers, 7.8 percent, it had one of the highest DUI arrest rates in the country with 683 per capita. The state also had one of the highest fatal-collision rates with 31 per capita.

Several states received the same score and were tied in their rankings. Arkansas and Alabama tied for second worst drivers, while a three-way tie saw Tennessee, Missouri and Alaska vie for the ninth worst.

Conversely, the top 10 states with the best drivers are:

1. New York
2. Massachusetts
3. Pennsylvania
4. Connecticut
5. Illinois
6. Virginia
7. North Carolina
8. New Jersey
9. Ohio
10. Minnesota

Those states scored fairly low, according to the firm’s assessment. New York had the second-lowest rate of fatal collisions, 6 per capita, and one of the lowest numbers for uninsured drivers, 6.1 percent.

Check out the full report on the worst drivers in America by visiting the firm’s website.