The Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety released their 2019 Roadmap Report detailing which states have the best and worst traffic safety laws and, you guessed it, Florida was rated one of the worst states.
States were rated on how many of the 16 road safety laws recommended by AHAS they had. If they had fewer than seven, they were marked “red” and if they had at least 9, they were marked “green”.
Florida only has five of the recommended laws, missing ones that allow officers to ticket drivers for not wearing their seatbelts, make texting and driving a first offense and require all riders on a motorcycle to wear a helmet, to name a few.
This should come as no surprise since Florida drivers are ranked among the nation’s worst with some of the highest traffic accident-related death rates.
According to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Annual Report for 2017, Florida had 402,385 reported crashes resulting in 3,116 deaths.
The worst ranked state in the report is South Dakota, having only two of the recommended 16 laws, while the best state is Rhode Island with 13.
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This article appears in Jan 16-22, 2019.