Where are the best drivers?

Seattle-based insurance comparison shopping site QuoteWizard wanted to find out where the best and worst drivers in the nation are located, and found that drivers on the East Coast tend to be 13 percent better drivers than those on the West Coast.

To find this information, QuoteWizard paired incident data from its users (with two million data points) with state fatality information from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) to determine the best and worst driving states in the nation, then ranked all 50 states based on the findings. To quantify overall driver standards for comparison, QuoteWizard weighted various incident counts for each state with its occurrence percentage. The final rankings are a sum of weighted means that calculated from total accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, citations and fatalities.

Not surprisingly, the state with the best drivers is an East Coast state. Keep reading to see the 10 states with the best drivers and find out which East Coast state it is number.

Check next week for the 10 states with the worst drivers. See the full ranking of all 50 states on QuoteWizard.com.

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10. Oklahoma

According to QuoteWizard's ranks, Republican-leaning states — like 10th best driver state Oklahoma was in 2016 — have better drivers. The website analyzed the state electoral results from the 2016 Presidential election and the results from its incident data, taking the average weighted sum of the 19 blue states and 30 red states.

Results showed Republican-leaning states being the better drivers by a seven percent margin. Democrat-leaning states on average come in behind Republican states in terms of accidents, speeding, DUIs, fatalities and citations overall.

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9. West Virginia

According to QuoteWizard, comparison shopping for insurance is important even in states with the best drivers. While states with the worst drivers can lead to rate hikes even for drivers who are safe and low-risk, states with the best drivers can offer varying prices. Agents can help consumers compare prices and find the best auto policies for them.

(Photo: iStock)

(Photo: iStock)

(Photo: iStock)

(Photo: iStock)

5. Nevada

While Nevada ranks as the fifth state with the best drivers, its Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metro area is the number one area for auto thefts with keys, according to Top 10 metro areas for auto thefts with keys. Those are some safe-driving thieves!

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4. Michigan

Michigan drivers are some of the best in the nation, coming in fourth overall, which is impressive for a state with such violent weather. Michigan's fatality ratings are quite low and its driving behavior commendable.

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3. Mississippi

According to QuoteWizard's data, drivers in Mississippi are getting into fewer accidents — and getting fewer citations, DUIs or speeding tickets — than more than 90 percent of America.

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2. Florida

What's keeping Florida from being number one in the country? Fatality stats are notably higher than the best state's, but according to the data points, Floridians actually get fewer citations — though that may be due to the percentage of drivers operating their vehicles without car insurance. Nearly 24 percent of Florida motorists are uninsured.

The top cities attributing to Florida being such good drivers are Orlando, Hialeah and Miami, in that order.

(Photo: iStock)

1. Rhode Island

Extremely low fatalities per licensed drivers combined with good scores across the board mean that Rhode Islanders are the best drivers in the country. However, their excellent driving records might be due to the fact that a 20-minute drive is considered a road trip. By the time the damage is done, they're probably past the state line and it's Connecticut's problem.

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