State Line Road and a river divide Kansas City between two states. Now, something else divides the metro–how good a driver you are. A new study says Missouri drivers are some of the worst in the nation while Kansas some of the best. But for Missouri, bad driving is getting worse.
The new ranking by financial technology company SmartAsset found Missouri tied with California for third worst in the latest list of States with the Worst Drivers. advice online.
Only drivers in Mississippi, which ranked No. 1, and Tennessee, ranked No. 2, were worse than those in California and Missouri.
Kansas drivers faired much better, ranking 14th best. But Kansas drivers are getting worse as well. They’re down slightly down from 2017, when the state ranked 11th best.
But Missouri drivers are pushing to the top of the bad list. Just last year, the Show-Me-State ranked 14th worst. In 2016, it ranked 12th.
In determining the states with the worst drivers, SmartAssets looks at fatalities per 100 million miles driven, drunken driving arrests per 1,000 drivers, percentage of drivers who are insured and how often residents use Google to search speeding and traffic tickets.
Missouri tied with California this year partly because it ranked 10th for the rate of drivers searching traffic tickets or speeding tickets online. This is “an indication that residents are getting tickets more than in other states,” according to SmartAssets.
But it is not known if more tickets are being issued because there is a greater focus by public safety to issue tickets. There could be many reasons for the results.
Also, a high number of drivers go without insurance in Missouri, which can make accidents more costly. The death rate per 100 miles driven is high in Missouri, compared to other states. Data shows 1.28 deaths for every 100 million miles traveled in the state. That’s up from a rate of 1.21 deaths in 2015.
Missouri’s fatality rate climbed while rates are falling nationwide.
You have to take the rankings somewhat in stride. Companies like SmartAssets will often come up with wild rankings and draw conclusions that are not often based on reality. But, if you’ve driven in either state, you may be a better judge.
