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Insurance Company Survey Shows That Nearly 20% of Motorists May Be Unsafe Drivers

Auto insurer GMAC Insurance has just released the results of its National Driver’s Test for 2010. The results confirm what California personal injury lawyers know for a fact which is there are far more unsafe drivers out there than most Americans know of. The GMAC Insurance report found that approximately one out of every 5 Americans would be unable to pass a written driving test if he or she had to take one today. That works out to about 38 million Americans.

The national average driving test score dropped from 76.6% in 2009 to 76.2% this year. Among other things, the report indicates that many American motorists continue to be unaware of some of the most basic road safety rules. For instance, most of them continue to be confused about the correct following distances to maintain.

The report also presents some additional findings. Motorists in the state of Kansas did extremely well on the driver’s test with an average test score of 82.3. New York was at the bottom of the list with an average test score 70%. Motorists in the Northeast had some of the lowest test scores, indicating that they need to brush up their knowledge of traffic safety rules. These motorists have the lowest average test scores at 74.9%, as well as some of the highest failure rates at about 25%. Motorists in the Midwest region have some of the highest average test scores of 77.5%, as well as some of the lowest failure rates of just 11.9%. It’s worth looking into why motorists in some states seem to fare much better on the written test than motorists in other states.

Age also seems to define how traffic safety savvy a motorist is. Not surprisingly, older drivers performed much better on the test. Male drivers aged above 45 had the highest test scores, and outperformed female motorists. Male motorists had a failure rate of just over 18%, while female motorists had a failure rate of 24%.

There’s even more bad news for California injury lawyers and traffic safety groups. The GMAC Insurance survey shows that one out of four respondents admitted to using a cell phone while driving, snacking, and fiddling with radio stations and other distracting activities while driving. Approximately 5% of the drivers admitted to text messaging while driving. That should be of interest, because traditionally the war against distracted driving has focused hard on the risks from texting while driving. The report also showed that female motorists are more likely to engage in distracted driving behaviors, including talking on the cell phone, selecting songs on an iPod, eating, reading and applying makeup.

One of the most depressing findings from the study was that distracted driving continues to be rampant. Approximately 25 % of the motorists admitted to indulging in dangerous driving behaviors, including talking on the cell phone and fiddling with the radio while driving. It proves that transportation authorities have their work cut out for them in trying to minimize distractions behind the wheel.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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One response to “Insurance Company Survey Shows That Nearly 20% of Motorists May Be Unsafe Drivers”

1. SR22 Quotes writes:
   

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   @ July 8th, 2010 at 08:06