Forget what you've heard about Utah drivers ...

Yahoo

17-07-2025

If you've been muttering to yourself about the car behind you swerving into the lane where you signaled you want to go, not being allowed to merge into traffic from an onramp or the erratic speed bursts and brake slams of the driver in the truck right ahead of you, take a deep breath.
It could be a lot worse. You could live in South Carolina or Mississippi, where a new study reports that drivers are not as courteous or friendly as they are in the Beehive State.
In fact, not to toot our own horn, but an analysis of multiple factors related to driving by Conboy Law Injury & Medical Malpractice Lawyers found Utah drivers are pretty chill and mostly friendly. Utah ranks No. 7 in terms of road 'ragelessness.'
Idaho got top honors in the study, which created a score based on courteous drivers survey data, driving under the influence arrests and number of fatal crashes in a five-year period per million people. Idaho's composite score was 83.76, compared to Utah's 72.65. The report hailed our friend to the north for low aggression, regular use of turn signals and letting cars get in front in heavy traffic. Idaho ranks in the middle, though, for fatal vehicle crashes, with 527 per million people over five years.
'As 82% of Americans committed an act of road rage in the past year, aggressive driving has become a defining characteristic of American roads. By analyzing the driver behavior and car accident statistics across the U.S.,' the law firm said that it 'identified the states with the friendliest drivers.'
Said Tatiana Boohoff, the firm's managing partner, 'Driver behavior rankings expose something deeper than just traffic patterns. They reveal the social fabric of different regions and how community values translate into everyday interactions. The surprising thing about driver friendliness is that it often inversely correlates with economic urgency, suggesting that places where people aren't constantly rushing to maximize productivity tend to produce more courteous road behavior.'
Top 10 for friendly driving
Idaho was the only state with a score above 80. It scored nine points higher than Hawaii.
Hawaii has the second-lowest rate of fatal crashes, but the DUI arrest rate was 1,000 higher than Idaho's.
Alaska drivers were a bit more courteous than Hawaii's, but the DUI arrest rate and fatal accident rate were both a bit higher than the Aloha State's.
Washington has fewer DUI arrests than either Hawaii or Alaska, at about 3,429 per million people, but that's more than Idaho's 3,179 average. Fatal accidents happen at a rate of 384 per million people.
Oregon and New Mexico tie for No. 5. New Mexico is No. 2 in terms of courteous drivers and has a low rate of DUI arrests, but Oregon has a much lower rate of fatal accidents, at 595 per million people to New Mexico's 927.
Massachusetts is dead last for fatal crashes and DUI arrests, but its courtesy driver survey score is the lowest in the top 10, 'showing that a low accident rate doesn't always equal good manners on the road,' per the report.
Utah 'performs a little better than Massachusetts in the survey in terms of courtesy and has a lower fatal crash rate at 327 per million people.'
New Hampshire has a slightly higher fatal crash rate than Utah, but the DUI arrest rate is more than 1,000 higher. When it comes to courtesy, New Hampshire and Utah are similar.
Vermont drivers are nicer on the roads than Utah, New Hampshire or Massachusetts drivers, but fatal crashes are more common in Vermont.
Not-so-good news for states
The worst five states for driver 'friendliness,' per the report, are South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Dakota and Louisiana.
Mississippi has the most fatal crashes, at a rate of 1,111 per million people over five years.
South Dakota has a stunning number of DUI arrests, at 9,388 per million people, which is well ahead of the second worst, North Dakota's 8,364. Illinois has just 184 per million people, which was the lowest rate of DUI arrests.
It's worth noting that the courteous driving scores are awfully close, ranging between New York's 3.20 and Idaho's 3.49.
But the final score — the 'friendly' score — isn't close. Idaho's is 83.76, while last place South Carolina scores a mere 31.96.
Road rage reality
The Associated Press reported that nearly 8 of every 10 U.S. drivers admit to expressing anger, aggression or road rage at least once in the previous year, per a survey by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
'While that's dangerous enough, an estimated 8 million drivers engaged in more extreme behavior on streets and roads that might be considered 'road rage,' including bumping or ramming a vehicle on purpose or getting out of their cars to confront another driver,' per the article.
Last June, Deseret News reported on the death of a member of Deseret News' extended family due to road rage. The article noted that Utah Highway Patrol counted 736 road rage crashes resulting in 28 deaths in 2022. In 2021, 27 people died, while the number in 2020 was 25.
Utah has been taking steps to counter road rage. Last March, KSL.com reported that road rage deaths had jumped from an average of 12 per year between 2017-2019 to more than 25 a year between 2020-2023. Officials called it a 'sharp spike.'
That was just the deaths, not the incidents.
The Utah Legislature in 2024 passed a law that defines road rage, noting that when a vehicle operator responds or escalates an incident on the road with 'the intent to endanger or intimidate' another driver, it fits the description and enhances a reckless driving penalty. There's a mandatory fine of between $750 and $1,000, and a driver could lose his or her license and even go to jail.
So what should a driver do? E. Scott Geller, distinguished professor of psychology at Virginia Tech, told Deseret News for the earlier article that emotional intelligence is key.
'Research shows that is more influential in one's success in life than IQ,' he said, noting it's a fancy term for controlling one's emotions.
'Road rage reflects emotions out of control,' he said, noting he's studied it and related issues for more than 50 years. He added that 'it's clear to me we are driving faster these days, not using our turn signals and we are driving closer to the car in front of us.'
Experts say that when another driver offends you, you have to will yourself to let it go.
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