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Virginia drivers among the most distracted in America, study says

Posted at 1:52 PM, Nov 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-19 13:56:14-05

Virginia had 601 distracted driving fatalities, which was 11.63% of total vehicle fatalities, over a 5-year span. That was the 8th-highest rate in the nation.

QuoteWizard analyzed NHTSA fatality data to find which states had the highest rate of distracted driving fatalities. They took a total number of distracted driving fatalities in each state over the period of 2013 to 2017 and ranked states on the number of distracted driving car crashes as a percentage of total fatal car crashes.

Key findings, according to the study:

  • In Virginia, there has been an average of 120.2 distracted driving fatalities per year from 2013 to 2017. Compare that to West Virginia’s 12.8 per year.
  • In QuoteWizard’s 2018 annual report, Virginia ranked 14th-worst drivers (distracted driving numbers were a variable in the rankings).
  • Neighbors West Virginia had 64 distracted driving fatalities (3.39% of total vehicle fatalities) over a 5-year-span, which was the 10th-lowest rate in the nation.
  • Nationwide, in 2013, distracted driving fatalities accounted for 6.22% of all driving fatalities, and in 2017 that number was down to 5.3%.
  • Nationwide there were 15,546 fatal distracted driving fatalities from 2013 to 2017.

Here are the most distracted driving states, according to the study:

Rank State Distracted fatalities Total fatalities % Distracted fatality
1 New Mexico    604 2287 26.41
2 New Jersey    750 3973 18.87
3 Washington    626 3566 17.55
4 Kentucky    842 5088 16.54
5 Hawaii    105 672 15.62
6 Kansas    408 2627 15.53
7 Louisiana    664 5037 13.18
8 Virginia    601 5166 11.63
9 Maryland    403 3554 11.33
10 Idaho    147 1431 10.27

You can find the full report and list of state rankings at this link.