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With a new year, the do-gooders at Advocates For Highway and Auto Safety have produced a new rating of states performance in adopting the safety laws they espouse, including open-container laws, mandatory motorcycle helmets, ramped-up privileges for teen drivers and booster seat standards. If you buy into the idea that more laws equals more safety, this iconographic is all you need to determine how “safe” your state is. If, on the other hand, you believe that some of AFHAS’s recommended laws are better than others, you’ll want to go through their complete report [in PDF here] to see whether your state’s laws measure up to your expectations. Sorry, but Democracy still isn’t a spectator sport.
34 Comments on “How Safe Is Your State To Drive In?...”
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AKA: How big of a pussy is your state?
I’m originally from Virginia, which is a lovely red on this graph. What is missing is that the one law they have bans radar detectors and Virginia has long been on the bleeding edge of law enforcement as revenue instrument. In 1996, I drove from Palm Beach to Richmond on I95, and the speed of truck traffic fell by over 10 mph crossing the NC/VA border, as truck drivers knew the local cops were serious about taking their money.
Now I’m in California. We have 700 new dumb laws just this month, and only enforce the ones that close businesses or tax people trying to get to work.
‘Tis true, Virginia is for wankers.
The fact that Virginia is ‘red’ and therefore ‘desirable’ from a laissez-fair motorist perspective pretty much undermines our hosts’ counter-point. Hell, the motorists in this “commonwealth” practically invented the “let’s drive 5-under in the passing lane” mindset that is sweeping the nation. Don’t get me started on the fuzz-buster ban or airplane/speed camera enforcement this pretentious “commonwealth” enforces.
Virginia is also the state of the $3,000 speeding ticket (extracted with the tax garnish, natch).
Illinois does not have a mandatory motorcycle helmet law, fyi
One of the few remaining states whose leaders understand the difference between a citizen and a subject? Or just haven’t yet gotten around to forcing adults to conform to other people’s ideas about safety?
Every time I see a biker without a helmet, I steer clear as he’s most likely a dbag. I’m a biker and I won’t go anywhere without my gear. I am all for mandatory helmet laws as people are too stupid (in many cases) to spend the $100 on a helmet but spend it on chrome instead.
Neither does IN or OH. Boggles my mind the way people ride in these states. Robstar, I’m with you. ATGATT (all the gear all the time.) If I didn’t wear a helmet, I’d be collecting disability and getting my breakfast spoon fed to me right now. I generally don’t agree with the State mandating what we do, but if bikers want to ride without a helmet, they should be taxed double on their auto insurance to cover the costs for all the idiots that end up being on life support at public expense because they insist on riding helmetless. No different than when your insurance rates go up if you smoke. If you want to exercise your right to risky behavior, be prepared to pay more.
Connecticut doesn’t have a helmet law either. While I wear a helmet whenever I ride (which is rare these days) but I also recognize the the path to an overbearing State starts with legislating common sense. You can’t fix stupid and the Government shouldn’t be in the business of trying.
It’s bad enough when the general public does it, but when other riders go down the path of ceding their right to make their own risk/benefit choices in the name of having thegovernment impose their own on other people, it’s depressing as hell. Get real, people. Life is unsafe, and nobody gets out alive.
Steve65,
I have no problem with other riders doing stupid things. But, again, those riders are costing me money in increased insurance. Suck it up, accept helmet laws and wear those ridiculous skull caps (kind of like plastic yarmulkes) with the fake DOT stickers. Problem solved. Taking a cue from your avatar, it was Fearless Leader who said “You fool. Laws are only for honest people. If you’re a crook, you sneak in anyvay!”
And before you go on about how “other riders” who don’t support your point of view, I would point out the irony of your asking for a monolithic response in the name of “freedom to choose”. I choose to support helmet laws simply because I don’t want to pay for the stupidity of others.
Well I call bunk on this report. Connecticut has a rather restrictive (including passenger and night time restrictions) graduated drivers licensing program (I’m going through it now with my nephew) and laws against using handheld cell phones, which covers both texting and talking. I also don’t see the correlation between the number of laws on the books and what those laws are. The only thing we lack is a helmet law.
For the record, none of these laws have helped much in terms of decreasing the number accidents and fatalities among new drivers like the recession has. At most, the expense of the GDL regime here in Connecticut had the unintended effect of pricing more young drivers off the road. It doesn’t mean they’re any better prepared when they get their license when they turn 18, but why bother mentioning that little detail?
As usual, I’d rather live in a red State.
Green states are more higher populated than the rest.
Funny, I’d measure safety in terms of fatalities per mile driven.
While this is the ONLY stat with any meaning, the insurance industry has a long history of making up and cherry picking “stats” which always point to more regulation, easier enforcement and higher surcharges. VMT stats are the only ones that matter, but insurance company advocacy cannot be confused with “highway engineering”, which is an actual science, or more importantly, “the truth”.
The above “report” (regs good, no regs bad, mmmkkkay ?) is yet another example.
I’m surprised New Hampshire is a yellow state. If you’re over 18, seat belt use is only suggested. Live free or Die, baby!
TN is very unsafe. We have very little legal restrictions for talking on a Cell phone while driving. It’s illegal to do it if you are a bus driver or have a learners permit. For anyone else it’s fair game to be driving a ~6000 lbs Toyota Sequoia while not looking at the road, one hand on a phone held up to the side of their head that is looking at something other than where they are going. Not that hands free would make it much better but my god I see a lot of bad driving by people with a cell phone in their hand.
I sort of got caught up in the anti-cell furor when it happened in Washington; initially, the law was pretty lame (secondary offense), but now it’s a primary offense and reportable to insurance carriers.
That said, if we’re going to really deal w/inattentive driving, we ought to crack down on all the other stupid crap people do: Eating a cheeseburger, smoking, talking to passengers, fixating on a GPS/NAV system, listening to bowel-shaking bass, etc., etc., etc. That said, just about anything can be a distraction…so it now feels like the anti-cell thing was just populist appeasement. I honestly would rather have a guy w/a phone to his ear than the same guy shaving or balancing a coffee and an egg McMuffin on the steering wheel.
And the thing is, I don’t know that there is any way to look at the safety data and attribute any change in it to the cell phone ban. The only data you’ll really be able to track is the revenue generated by local law enforcement…
dhanson and Sammy – Agree with both of you. I’ve lived at both ends of TN and seen 3 lane swerves to get to an exit and cell phone tucked between the ear and shoulder while holding a cigarette and cheesburger while straying into oncoming traffic. The best is getting flipped off (by the cigarette hand) when you honk to get their attention when that happens.
It’s great now to have the red light cameras and watching people come screetching to a halt when the light turns yellow now too. I’m getting to see first hand why there are so many wrecks at photo enforced intersections. People just don’t use common sense…which is why it isn’t so common I guess.
more laws do not equal safety
Michigan is a “green” state and I cringe whenever I am near a car with Michigan plates even more than one with Ohio plates, You just never know what kind of craziness they will do!
Laws are just paper in books. Cops are flesh and blood with high powered cars, radar, and guns.
Ohio may not have lots of laws, but we have lots of cops with bad haircuts, and bad attitudes. Ohio is a cop ridden hell hole. Don’t assume that you can drive however you like here. Indeed, if you can avoid the place do so.
I have a neighbor who formerly resided in Ohio, and he basically told me the same thing.
As a Pennsylvanian, I’m pretty sure we have a primary seat belt law, contrary to this report.
I live in PA too…I thought the seat belt law was changed to primary enforcement last year.
I’m pretty sure that not wearing a safety belt in Pennsylvania is still a secondary offense.
It’s still secondary. I think they were trying to make it primary, but that died along with the no-talking-on-the-phone-while-driving and no-texting-behind-the-wheel laws. Jersey is primary enforcement. Doesn’t mean a state trooper won’t pull you over for something stupid like a burned out license plate lamp just to ask you “seatbelts on?”
And don’t forget local cops in PA aren’t allowed radar guns.
Texting while driving should be a capital offense. That’s ONE law I would support. Shaving or makeup application? Life in prison for first offense. Book on the steering wheel? Death. Drunk driving? Public disembowelment.
I’m kidding, of course. Sort of.
The problem with the currently-constituted safety laws is that they prevent Darwin and his inevitable consequences from thinning the population to just those who possess the sense to co-exist. I remember a poster several months back who opined that the greatest safety feature a new car could have is a spike mounted on the steering wheel to focus people’s attention…..I go with that.
Arizona is looking better and better all the time to me.
+++ One more point is that insurance costs more in no-helmet-law states. That’s my standard rebuttal to the “you’re interfering with my freedom” argument. When non-helmet-wearing riders can figure out how to compensate me for my increased costs (as another AGATT rider), I’ll be happy to support them.
Cite, or it’s BS.
I’m with Steve, my dad’s motorcycle insurance didn’t change when PA’s law went into effect.
Completely typical (as in wrong) government thinking, “More laws=safer/fewer laws= less safe”
There are buffoons driving everywhere and intrusive government regulation won’t change that fact one iota. As long as drivers treat their car like an office/game room/cafeteria/library and auto manufacturers are only too happy to comply with that desire, stupid, distracted driving will occur. I still contend that it is too easy to get a driver’s license and there are just too many people that are too stupid to drive intelligently (entitlement?).
I notice Massachusetts is not among the green, high law states. We are, however, the safest, with the lowest death rate (probably per vmt), and fewer injuries. But the reason is that we’re the third most densely populated states, with few fast rural two laners, and so people can’t get going fast enough to hurt themselves.