Highway Safety Group Releases 2014 Study of Safest Driving States
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety released its 2014 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws.
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety released its eleventh annual, 2014 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws, which reports on which states are safest in terms of traffic safety laws. According to a press release from the organization, the report grades all 50 states and the District of Columbia on 15 basic traffic safety law,s as well as each state's progress during the past 25 years. States can receive a rating of green, yellow, or red (green being the best, red being the worst).
In order to receive a green rating, a state must have a primary-enforcement seat belt law covering all seating positions and cannot have repealed an existing all-ride motorcycle helmet law within the past 10 years. In addition, states that receive a green rating must have 11 to 15 driving safety laws in place (each state is graded on a total of 15 optimal laws), including primary-enforcement seat belt laws and all-rider helmet laws. States that received a green rating included Illinois, Oregon, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Rhode Island, Washington, California, and Louisiana. States that were among the lowest rated included South Dakota, Mississippi, and Arizona.
The report also pointed to states that enacted new laws in 2013. West Virginia and Hawaii both enacted primary enforcement of seat belts, while Hawaii and Virginia enacted all-driver text messaging restrictions. For the 2013 year, no states adopted booster seat laws or all-rider motorcycle helmet laws. Maine and Tennessee enacted a law requiring ignition interlock devices for all impaired driving offenders, according to the report.