These States Have The Most Aggressive Drivers: Study

The state of Georgia comes in 10th with a score of 28.55, largely due to the state’s love of speeding. The number of road rage incidents with a gun per 100,000 residents isn’t particularly high, at least compared to the rest of the list, at 0.61. That said, 42.5 percent of wrecks can be attributed to aggressive and/or careless driving, and fatal crashes involving aggressive/careless driving comes in at 6.53 per 100,000 residents.

Wisconsin ups the ante with a score of 30.63, but it also ups the violence compared to Georgia, as road rage incidents with a weapon jump to 1.10. Wrecks tied to aggressive or careless driving are also higher, coming in at 56.4 percent. On the plus side, fatal crashes involving aggressive driving are lower than in Georgia, coming in at 5.24 per 100,000 residents.

You probably wouldn’t expect much trouble in Delaware, but with a score of 30.73, you should probably still be careful. Road rage issues involving a gun aren’t much of an issue, coming in at 0.39, however, wrecks and fatal wrecks involving aggressive drivers are both higher than they are in Georgia. Most importantly, though, aggressive/careless driving and speeding tickets work out to 2.26 per 100,000 residents, which is more than double the rate seen in Wisconsin.

With a score of 33.66, the state with the best barbecue in the country is also apparently pretty reckless on the road. Gun incidents are higher than in Delaware but still nowhere close to Wisconsin. Still, with wrecks caused by aggressive driving at 54.5 percent and fatal crashes at 7.64, you’re going to want to be on your guard around other drivers.

It’s probably not much of a surprise that New Jersey made the list, although you might not have expected it to not even make the top five. It still has the highest rate of aggressive/careless driving tickets that we’ve seen so far at 2.69, and 72.1 percent of wrecks are caused by aggressive drivers. It’s just held back by the low number of gun incidents (0.07) and comparatively low rate of fatal crashes (5.00).

With a score of 40.95, Arkansas is the first state to make it into the top five, although, like New Jersey, you never would have guessed it based on road rage incidents involving guns (0.10). The same goes for aggressive driving/speeding violations. What really puts Arkansas ahead of New Jersey is that even though it has fewer wrecks involving aggressive drivers (62.3 percent), the rate of fatal crashes is nearly twice New Jersey’s, coming in at 11.92 per 100,000 residents.

Colorado lands in fourth place with a score of 42.44, but if you look at the numbers, nothing really stands out beyond the rate of aggressive speeders slightly edging out New Jersey’s at 2.83. Still, it earns its spot on the list by having relatively high numbers across the rest of the board, including 0.81 road rage incidents with a gun per 100,000 people, 61.9 percent of wrecks involving reckless driving and 7.41 fatal crashes per 100k.

If you were guessing what states would earn a podium finish, would you have guessed Montana? Would anyone have guessed Montanta? And yet, its score of 42.44 puts it above Colorado. Drivers tend to keep their guns to themselves, giving them an armed road rage rate that’s slightly lower than Delaware’s, and they don’t get very many tickets for aggressive driving, so you’d think you’d be in the clear. Where it all falls apart is the 71.2 percent of wrecks that are tied to aggressive driving and the fatality rate of 11.67 per 100,000 residents.

With a score of 44.66, New Mexico takes second place. Its rate of 1.85 tickets for aggressive driving is high but not that high considering what we saw from Colorado, New Jersey and Delaware. The same goes for the wrecks caused by aggressive driving, which at 50.1 percent is one of the lowest in the top 10. Even the fatality rate, while high at 9.94 per 100,000 residents doesn’t top the list. That said, they do love their guns in New Mexico. Road rage incidents involving guns is the highest we’ve seen so far at a whopping 2.08 per 100k.

Louisiana isn’t often number one at anything, but congratulations to everyone who lives there on having the most aggressive drivers in the country with a score of 47.32. Wait, that’s not actually a good thing. Road rage-related gun violence is low (0.52), but the rest is pretty rough. You’ve got 62.2 percent of wrecks caused by reckless driving, 11.55 residents per 100,000 killed by reckless drivers and more aggressive driving/speeding tickets than any other state on the list (2.85).