Study: Ohio among worst drivers. No joke!

Ohio was recently ranked as having the 17th worst drivers in the United States according to a study by Quotewizard, an insurance shopping site.

» More Coverage: Highway fatals in 2016 highest in past 10 years

Credit: Bill Lackey

Credit: Bill Lackey

The study is based on incident data from users of the Quotewizard website which was then extrapolated to Federal Highway Administration fatality data. The overall data is determined by a weighted sum of total accidents, speeding tickets, DUI, citations, and fatalities per state.

» LEARN MORE: See the full report here

Rhode Island was rated as having the best drivers, Utah was ranked last.

The study also compared Ohio to Michigan, which are famous for their storied rivalry. Michigan is ranked as having the 4th best drivers in the nation. This is due in part to Ohio’s higher rate of speeding tickets, they are rated the 7th highest state for speeding tickets across the country, and Ohio’s higher rate of fatalities.

» RELATED: Can you guess which local cities have the worst drivers?

According to data from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Ohio saw 302,307 automobile crashes in 2015. Of those, 1,029 were fatal, 75,109 resulted in injury, and 226,169 resulted in property damage. This total number is up from 2014, which saw 282,368 automobile crashes.

Surprisingly then, according to 2013 data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Ohio ranked 42nd lowest in terms of insurance premiums. The average in Ohio is $738.68, which is $215.62 lower than the national average of $954.30.

The low insurance premiums could be related to studies such as one done by carinsurancecomparison.com, which, in contrast to the Quotewizard report, ranked Ohio near the top as one of the nation’s best drivers. This study relied on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which had a focus on fatal car crashes and their causes.

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