Montana is my favorite place in the whole world. There's countless reasons why it's a great place to live, which is why state pride is so common here. Montanans will boast about having the best fishing, beer or you name it. But let's be real— Montana's not the best when it comes to being safe to drive in.

The data-news outlet Staker, using the Federal Highway Administration's 2020 highway statistics report, ranked each state for driving safety based on fatalities per billion miles traveled. Montana was the 4th-most dangerous state to drive in, this article has the whole list. Here's why driving in Montana is so dangerous:

Wildlife Accidents

Stacker also ranked each state for likelihood to hit an animal using the annual collision study from State Farm and ranked Montana 2nd worst, check out the whole list here.

Snow

Safewise, a website that analyzes safety and security information, "analyzed the number of fatal car crashes due to rain and snow in each state using the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) 2016 crash data" and found how common snow-related driving accidents are per 100,000 people in each state. Anyone who's spent a winter here shouldn't be surprised that Montana was ranked the 3rd worst on this list.

Highways

This article has information on what makes our top-5-most-dangerous roads so deadly.

DUI Deaths

The driving education website Zutobi used "the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) crash data tool, the Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool (FIRST), and NSC (National Safety Council) injury data" to find which states have the most drunk driving per capita. Sadly, based on the factors they chose, Zutobi determined Montana has the most drunk driving in the country. Out of the factors I've written about in this article, this is the one that Montanans can control. Don't drive drunk.

20 License Plates Banned In Montana

This is just a small glimpse at banned license plates in the state of Montana. There are well over 4000 that could be added to this list.

Now why some of these are banned is beyond me. I don't find any of them offensive, that's for sure; the state of Montana has the right to refuse:

"any combination of letters or numbers, or both, that may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency or which are misleading or a duplication of license plates provided elsewhere."- Montana Motor Vehicle Department

What plates are banned in your state? Hopefully, they are not as picky as Montana.

13 Wicked Awesome Things You Can Buy at Montana's Worst Tourist Destination

Locals consider it one of the best local attractions, but tourists don't "get it" so they think the gift shop is weird. Check out the cool stuff you can buy at $50,000 Silver Dollar in Haugan, Montana.

 

 

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