New Jersey Drivers Rank Safest in America While Montana Lands Last in New 50 State Road Safety Report Card

Traffic crashes killed 39,254 people across the United States in 2024, a national rate of 11.5 deaths per 100,000 residents. A new study from The Schiller Kessler Group finds that a driver’s risk depends heavily on the state they drive in. The analysis ranks all 50 states on a composite score built from four measures: fatal crash rate, fatality rate, speeding-related fatalities, and alcohol related fatalities. Lower scores mean safer roads. The result is a 40.5-point gap between the best and worst states for driving in America.

New Jersey ranks first with a composite score of 6.0. It doesn’t lead any single category, but it performed well across all four, placing 6th safest for crashes, 5th for fatalities, 11th for speeding deaths, and 2nd for drunk driving deaths. Massachusetts and Minnesota tie for second (11.3), followed by New York (13.3), Utah (14.8), Rhode Island (15.5), Maryland (15.8), New Hampshire (17.8), Pennsylvania (18.8), and Florida (19.5). Florida’s crash and fatality rates are middling, but it has the lowest speeding fatality rate in the country. Six of the ten safest states are in the Northeast, and no Northeastern state appears near the bottom of the list.

Montana ranks as the most dangerous state for driving, with a score of 46.5. It placed 45th for crash rate, 45th for fatality rate, 49th for speeding fatalities, and 47th for drunk driving fatalities. South Carolina (46.25), Wyoming (44.75), Oklahoma (41.75), Arizona (41.25), New Mexico (41.0), Texas (39.25), Alabama (37.0), North Carolina (34.75), and Nevada (33.25) complete the bottom ten. Most of them are in the South, Southwest, and Mountain West. Connecticut (24.25) sits almost exactly at the national midpoint. States land in the bottom ten for different reasons. Montana, South Carolina, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Alabama have some of the highest crash rates in the country. Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, and Nevada rank low mainly because of speeding and alcohol fatalities rather than unusually high crash counts.

Looking at population-adjusted crash data alone gives a different picture. The 36,297 fatal crashes in 2024 work out to 10.7 fatal crashes per 100,000 residents nationwide. Mississippi leads by a wide margin at 23.04 per 100,000 (678 crashes among 2.94 million residents). That is more than double the national rate and over four times the rates in Rhode Island (4.32), Massachusetts (4.89), and New York (5.21). New Mexico (17.74), Arkansas (17.71), Wyoming (17.36), Alabama (17.35), South Carolina (17.30), Montana (16.97), Louisiana (15.33), Tennessee (15.12), and Oklahoma (14.50) complete the ten highest rates. These ten states hold only about 12% of the U.S. population but carry a disproportionate share of fatal crash risk.

Mississippi also has the highest fatality rate in the country, 25.59 deaths per 100,000 residents. Its average of 1.11 deaths per fatal crash is above the national average of 1.08, which means its fatal crashes more often kill more than one person. Arkansas (19.53), New Mexico (19.20), South Carolina (18.95), and Alabama (18.65) follow. Wyoming (18.21) and Montana (18.11) show that sparsely populated states can have some of the highest death rates despite relatively few crashes. Arizona makes the fatality top ten at 16.21 without making the crash top ten, because its 1.10 deaths per crash points to especially severe collisions.

Even so, Mississippi ranks only 33rd on the composite index. It has the fourth lowest speeding fatality rate and the fourth lowest alcohol fatality rate in the country, so its high crash and death rates don’t seem to come from risky driving. The study suggests other factors may be involved, such as road infrastructure, emergency response times, seat belt use, and the age and condition of vehicles. Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee also stay out of the bottom ten because of relatively strong behavioral scores.

The study also finds that busy, densely populated states don’t necessarily have dangerous roads. Massachusetts, with 7.1 million residents, recorded 5.09 deaths per 100,000 people, and New York, with nearly 19.9 million, posted 5.54, the third lowest rate nationally. In raw numbers, Texas (4,160 deaths) and California (3,876) together account for about one in five U.S. traffic deaths. Adjusted for population, however, their rates of 13.30 and 9.83 per 100,000 are moderate. The data shows that the highest individual risk falls on drivers in mid sized, rural, and Southern states, not in the country’s largest states.