HEALTH
Utah drivers rank high in “Safest States in America” study
Sep 14, 2022, 6:00 AM
FILE: Getty Images.
SALT LAKE CITY — After a review of road conditions, fatality rates from traffic accidents, and the condition of our bridges, a marketing company has ranked Utah seventh in the nation for driver safety.
Specifically, these factors, as compared to other U.S. states, helped Utah score well in the area of driver safety:
- road conditions
- pedestrian road fatalities
- conditions of dams
- car passenger fatalities, and
- bridges conditions.
The study was conducted by Top Agency and is encapsulated in its Safest States in America report.
Top Agency reported that Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Idaho are ahead of Utah in this metric, while Vermont, Wyoming, and Virginia wrap up the top ten.
Utah was above average in three of the categories assigned by Top Agency and was closer to the middle in another two.
How Utah fared in other categories
In the category of Personal Safety, Utah scored eighth in the nation. This category included a review of Utah’s murder, sexual assault, aggravated assault, missing persons, fatal occupational injuries, and robbery rates.
Utah was the 16th state in the nation for mental health safety. That conclusion was made after the company reviewed Utah’s mental health agency expenditures, overdose funding programs, the number of licensed psychologists, the number of mental health facilities, the number of untreated adults with mental illness, the number of substance use disorders, and the rate of suicide.
The Beehive State was at 17th when it comes to public security, which included a review of the number of school shootings, mass shootings, terror attacks, the cost of weather/climate disasters, and the number of Utahns who were fully vaccinated.
Finally, Utah registered at number 27 when the agency measured financial safety. That category included investment crimes, bankruptcy, package theft, credit card fraud, identity theft, extortion rate, personal data breaches, and Utah’s unemployment rate.
When considering Public Safety, Utah ranked 28th in the nation in the Top Agency review. This ranking reflects Utah’s number of sex offenders, hate crimes, watch group participation, house burglaries, the number of police officers per capita, and the number of firefighters.
Overall rankings
Overall, the state of New Hampshire was ranked by Top Agency as the safest state in America, followed by Maine, Massachusettes, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In this overall category, Utah is ranked at number 13.
New Mexico, Nevada, and Alaska were ranked as the least safe American states in Top Agency’s 2022 survey.
Other reading:
- Utah drivers getting worse according to UHP enforcement numbers
- Provo-Orem metro ranked in top 10 safest big cities in the US
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