CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new study from an insurance comparison company found that North Carolina drivers rank among the worst in the country.
QuoteWizard released its findings on Monday that show North Carolina ranks as the 18th worst state for driving. South Carolina wasn't far behind, ranking as the 20th worst state.
The website used over 10 million insurance quotes from across the nation and ranked states on four factors: accidents, DUIs, speeding tickets, and citations.
In those categories, North Carolina drivers had the 12th most accidents and 17th most DUIs, which greatly contributed to the state's poor ranking. South Carolina had the 4th most accidents but the 15th least number of DUIs.
The Carolinas did rank on the positive half of the speeding category. South Carolina had the 22nd least speeding violations and North Carolina ranked 24th.
Carolinians can be happy they don't reside on the western side of the country, with Utah and California taking the top two spots as the worst drivers in the country, according to the study. QuoteWizard found overall that eastern state drivers performed better than western state drivers.
Contributing to California's abysmal ranking was ranking as the state with the most DUIs and third most accidents. Utah drivers, meanwhile, have the most speeding tickets and the second most citations.
The best drivers in the nation reside in Connecticut, Michigan, and West Virginia, according to the study.
While North Carolina ranked poorly in this study, Charlotte drivers ranked as the 12th best in a similar study done by QuoteWizard that focused on cities in July. That study used the same methodology using the 70 biggest cities in America.
Among the 70 cities analyzed, Charlotte ranked 52nd in DUIs, 56th in speeding, and 60th in citations. The one nod on Charlotte was ranking 33rd in accidents.