Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State for its population’s eagerness to go into battle for this country, but it may just be developing another reputation — for bad drivers. That’s because when Consumer Affairs published its graphic showing the 10 cities with the worst drivers in the country, two of them — Memphis and Knoxville — were located there.
In fact, those cities were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, in that order, while no other state had more than one location listed. The results are based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2024 estimates of traffic deaths that — overall — did show a slight decline in annual fatalities, from 40,901 in 2023 to 39,345 last year. On the other hand, traffic deaths remain a “public health crisis” in this country, and the rate of total traffic fatalities in Memphis reached 38.79 per 100,000 people in 2024. Knoxville’s rate was 31.49 traffic fatalities per 100,000 residents.
But Consumer Affairs dug deeper than that, too. Its overall rankings further took into account the number of crashes per 100,000 people that involved things like driving under the influence, speeding, and just plain “bad driving” — as defined by a variety of aggressive or careless maneuvers. For example, in ranking Waterbury, Connecticut, in third place, Consumer Affairs pointed to the city’s driving fatalities that involved someone being under the influence. Waterbury’s rate, 7.87 deaths per 100,000 people, was more than four times the national number.
Where are America’s worst-behaved drivers?
Of course, numbers can be funny things. As the old saying goes, statistics can be considered one of the three basic forms of untruths, along with lies and damned lies. Here’s what we mean: While NHTSA made its pick for worst drivers based on fatal outcomes, that — although important — certainly isn’t the only way to look at the matter. For instance, when Forbes Advisor set out to analyze folks’ on-road behavior, like distracted driving or make aggressive moves to get ahead of traffic, Tennesseeans were among the best-behaved drivers in the nation last year…