NY Drivers Ranked In National Survey: The Result Might Shock You

NEW YORK, NY – When you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic with blaring horns and cars jumping red lights as they weave between lanes, this might come as a shock to you: New Yorkers are among the nation's best drivers.

A new report from financial advising company SmartAsset studied four metrics: the percent of drivers with insurance, the number of DUIs per driver, average number of deaths per miles driven and how often residents Google terms such as traffic ticket or speeding ticket.

New York came in 46th, with only Connecticut, Nebraska, Vermont and Massachusetts having better drivers.

Here’s the complete breakdown for the state:

• Percent of drivers with insurance: 90.6
• Number of DUIs per 1,000 drivers: 2.43
• Average number of deaths for every 100 million miles driven: 0.83
• SmartAsset's score: 31.85

If you’re planning a road trip anytime soon, you might want to avoid Mississippi, Tennessee and basically the rest of the South, the report said. Mississippi ranked the worst in the country, with the authors noting it had the second-highest death rate at 1.7 deaths per 100 million miles driven.

Furthermore, Google Trends data indicated quite a few drivers “run afoul of the law,” with Mississippi having the 11th highest search volume for ticket offenses.

Overall, five of the worst 10 states were located in the South. These states tended to have the highest death rates and lowest amount of drivers with insurance, the authors wrote. Florida fell to eighth this year after ranking worst last year. The state still has the lowest rate of insured drivers with a paltry 73 percent.

Here are the states with the worst drivers:

1. Mississippi
2. Tennessee
3. California
3. Missouri
5. New Mexico
5. Texas
7. Alabama
8. Florida
9. Alaska
9. Arizona

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Drew Angerer / Staff