New Jersey has some of the nation’s best drivers

According to one study, anyway, New Jersey drivers are among the best in the country. Insurify.com says New Jersey drivers rank #9 in the country.

They took information from car insurance applications including "whether they have been cited for at least one of nearly 20 different traffic violations in the past seven years, at-fault accidents, DUIs, reckless driving, speeding, and failure to stop infractions.” They compared that with data from the Federal Highway Administration and the Institute for Highway Safety to come up with their rankings.

Why does New Jersey rank so high? Some of the findings: around 20% of New Jersey drivers had any prior incident, only 6.74% had a speeding ticket (what?), and just 12.48% of New Jersey drivers had an at-fault accident. Our rate of vehicle-related fatalities is also sterling: we have the third lowest, behind only Rhode Island and New York at 6.3 per 100,000 drivers.

I don’t really have anything to base it on (other than callers over the years), but all those numbers seem really low to me. Only 6.74% have had a speeding ticket? Every day I see speed traps and people pulled over and there a ton of accidents every day on the traffic reports for only 12.48% of New Jersey drivers having an at-fault accident.

Here are the national averages according to Insurify: In total, 23.83 percent of drivers have committed at least one moving violation. Additionally, 12.46 percent of drivers have an at-fault accident on their record, and 11.67 percent have been cited for speeding. Across the country as a whole, there were 11.2 vehicle related fatalities per 100,000 motorists as of 2018.

They rank the top ten safest states to drive in as: 1. Michigan 2. Kentucky 3. Mississippi 4. Nevada 5. Florida 6. West Virginia 7. Connecticut 8. Arizona 9. New Jersey and 10. Texas.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.