We have covered many severe Baton Rouge car accidents in previous posts. There are many causes of car accidents but most accidents are attributable to some form of bad driving behavior. Bad driving habits include speeding, aggressive driving, intoxicated driving and distracted driving. Although these behaviors are exhibited by drivers in other states, Louisiana drivers were recently ranked worst in the nation by a car insurance company study.

Louisiana was ranked as the state with the worst drivers for a variety of reasons. Louisiana is 18th in the nation for obeying traffic signals, 41st for intoxicated driving and 47th for careless driving. All of these factors cause many serious car accidents every year.

Louisiana State University's Highway Safety Research Group estimates that there were 306 alcohol related fatalities in state roads last year. Overall there were 720 fatalities on state roadways from 683 fatal crashes. Probably because of the state's dismal safety record, the car insurance company study ranks the state as the second most dangerous place to drive. The poor condition of roads across the state is another factor in this dismal ranking.

One area for improvement in the rate of Louisiana crashes is education. One Baton Rouge driving school says that drivers are inadequately prepared to drive on their own and that drivers under age 17 are only required to have 8 hours of driving experience and 30 hours of classroom time. Those over age 17 can get a license with only a six hour class and an 80 percent score on a written test. The test is also given orally because of the possibility that some drivers are illiterate.

Source: WAFB, "Louisiana drivers ranked worst in nation," Tyana Williams, Nov. 16, 2011