This is the conclusion of this analysis of the NHTSA accident fatality database by The Daily Beast. The NHTSA data is freely available for download, and I have done my own analysis with it a couple of years ago when I used it to prototype a SQL Server Analysis Services cube using ADOMD.NET. The Daily Beast used more recent 2009 data.

They looked at total traffic fatalities by state and normalized the results using the number of licenses issued in that state and the number of miles driven. The result is a ranking of the 50 states by driving skill (assuming that more accidents equals poor driving). The list is in descending order – North Dakota being the state with the most accidents (worst drivers) and Connecticut being the state with the least accidents (best drivers).

Massachusetts Republican

When overlaid with the results of the Obama/McCain election in 2008, an interesting pattern emerges. With the exception of outlyers Delaware and Mississippi, the states with the worst drivers are all red and the states with the best drivers are all blue:

1 North Dakota   26 Alabama
2 Montana   27 Utah
3 Kentucky   28 Pennsylvania
4 Louisiana   29 Nevada
5 Oklahoma   30 Nebraska
6 Alaska   31 Maine
7 Missouri   32 Iowa
8 Delaware   33 Washington
9 Idaho   34 New York
10 Texas   35 Wyoming
11 South Dakota   36 Georgia
12 Arizona   37 New Jersey
13 Kansas   38 Indiana
14 Florida   39 West Virgina
15 Hawaii   40 California
16 Tennessee   41 Illinois
17 Vermont   42 Maryland
18 Arkansa   43 Oregon
19 Wisconsin   44 Ohio
20 Minnesota   45 Mississippi
21 New Mexico   46 New Hampshire
22 North Carolina   47 Massachusetts
23 South Carolina   48 Rhode Island
24 Michigan   49 Virginia
25 Collorado   50 Connecticut

Hogwash? Maybe. A random sampling of people who speed on Green Street and for whom there is record of their political affiliation on the Web shows that the majority are Republicans.