Study Shows Tennessee Drivers Ranked High in Fatalities

Undoubtedly no one wants to be involved in a car crash, but they do unfortunately happen. In fact, statistics from the National Safety Council found that an astonishing 4.8 million Americans were seriously injured from car crashes in 2020.

Interested in road safety, Upliftlegalfunding.com assessed a range of driving variables with varying fatality/danger to establish the relative probability of having a fatal car crash in each American state.

Upliftlegalfunding.com found that drivers in South Carolina need to be the most cautious as there is a 100 percent probability they could be involved in a serious car crash in the ‘Palmetto state’.

In second position is Mississippi, as there is a 95.58 percent probability of drivers in the ‘Magnolia state’ being involved in a life-threatening car crash.

Kentucky is in third place with an 88.04 percent probability of having a deadly car crash in the ‘Bluegrass state’.

Tennessee is in fourth position, as drivers in the ‘Volunteer state’ have a 76.40 percent probability of being involved in a fatal car crash.

In Tennessee deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled were as follows for these categories:

542 car occupants, 387 pickup SUV occupants, 27 large truck occupants, 187 motorcyclists, 180 pedestrians and 8 bicyclists.

New Mexico (75.65%), Wyoming (74.68%), Oklahoma (74.48%), Louisiana (72.85%) and Oregon (70.36%) are among the other states where the probability of being involved in a fatal car crash is over 70%, respectively ranking fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth.

At the other end, in 50th spot is District of Columbia (Washington D.C.), out of all the drivers in the United States, drivers in the capital city have the lowest probability of being involved in a lethal car crash at 5.24 percent.

Upliftlegalfunding’s Basic Principles for Drivers to Follow:

1) Refresh your memory

Every two to three months familiarize yourself again with the rules of the road. This includes recapping knowledge on the different traffic signs, the speed limits (depending on the type of road) and passing regulations. By doing so, you become a more competent and alert driver – hence better adapting to different driving situations you are put in because you have that driver awareness.

2) Make the basics a habit

As soon as you get in the car, make sure you put on your seatbelt and all your mirrors are adjusted in accordance to your needs before setting off on your journey. Also, if any of your key light indicators are flashing/lighting up then do not ignore them – this includes the tire pressure indicator and check engine light.

3) Be conscious of your well-being

If you are feeling fatigued/tired, then do not attempt to drive because you could fall asleep at the wheel. Likewise, if you have consumed a few alcoholic drinks, then avoid driving because your co-ordination and primary senses would not be the same as when you are sober. Be conscious of your well-being to avoid jeopardizing the potential well-being of other road users.

The Methodology:

1) Upliftlegalfunding.com wanted to establish the probability of having a fatal car crash in each American state.

2) To do so, Upliftlegalfunding.com used a ‘gradient boosting model’ to discover the ‘co-efficient importance’ of the different variables that affect the average number of deceased people in each car crash.

3) The variables used to calculate the ‘co-efficient importance’ for each of the American states with regards to car crashes was sourced from ‘iihs.org’ and included:

- Crash deaths percentage by road user type in each state

- Deaths percentage by crash type in each state

- Deaths percentage by land in each state

- Deaths with alcohol involvement percentage in each state

- Rate of observed daytime front-seat belt use in each state

- The average number of dead people in each crash in each state

4) Once the ‘co-efficient importance’ was calculated using the identified key variables, the collated data was then used to fit a ‘gradient boosting model’ with reasonable accuracy.

5) Upliftinglegalfunding.com then used deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled for each factor multiplying the ‘co-efficient importance’ as weight to get the dangerous driving score.

6) Once this was done, the weighted dangerous score for each state was normalized (i.e. between 0 – 100) as the relative probability of having a fatal car crash in each analyzed state.

7) The state of Massachusetts was excluded from the study due to insufficient data.

8) All probability stats/results in this research refers to the ‘relative probability of crashing’.