Florida Drivers Cause More Accidents
A recent study found that Florida’s drivers are the worst. That sounds dramatic, but the information collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration takes into consideration crash and police information, accounting for the number of wrongful deaths per miles driven in each state; the number of driving under the influence (DUI) arrests per state reported to the FBI; the ratio of insured versus uninsured motorists in each state; and Google’s analytics regarding the number of searches about speeding tickets and traffic tickets in each state.
Florida ranked 9th in the nation for the number of deadly car crashes, with the same ranking for Internet searches regarding traffic tickets. Any driver braving I-75, I, 95, or SR 826 knows the perils of Florida traffic, especially in season. Most Florida drivers assume they are doing well on the roads, but unfortunately that’s just not the case.
In fact, it’s been proven that because Florida’s drivers have to drive more miles on a daily basis, it’s much more likely that they’ll get into a serious car accident. In this case, drivers have to purchase more insurance, which becomes more expensive. As a very highly populated state, Florida has many uninsured drivers because of this issue, and when accidents do happen this is a major issue.
On top of being the state with the worst drivers, Florida also has the most dangerous road: U.S. 1. According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, U.S. 1 has a fatality rate of 2.8, with more than 1, 011 car accidents with more than 1, 000 wrongful deaths over the past ten years. Not too far behind is I-95, running through Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, with a fatality rate of 1.73 accidents per mile.
Floridians should always be carrying car insurance, but especially due to the large number of motorists – including those uninsured – on the roads, they need to be carrying as much uninsured coverage as they can possibly afford. This is the second year in a row that Florida drivers have received this distinction.
