MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin ranks among the worst in the country when it comes to drivers, according to the insurance review site QuoteWizard.com.
A big reason behind that ranking is the way people are driving in Milwaukee. This ranking means it could cost you more to insure your vehicle even if you have a perfect driving record.
“What we did is we looked at dangerous driving behavior nationwide, specifically speeding tickets, accidents, DUIs, and citations. And what we found is that Wisconsin has a very high number of dangerous driving incidents,” said senior research analyst Nick VinZant at QuoteWizard.com.
According to researchers, Wisconsin has the fourth-highest number of DUIs and fifth-highest number of speeding tickets. When it comes to what city is driving those numbers for the state, Milwaukee is leading the way.
“We found that Milwaukee is the worst driving city in Wisconsin,” said VinZant. “There is a speeding and a citation problem, and citations can be anything from dangerous driving, texting while driving, reckless endangerment, a wide variety of things. Milwaukee ranks very highly.”
VinZant says if you drive in a state like Wisconsin, which now ranks as one of the worst in the country on the driving scale for insurance agencies, it could mean your car insurance could be greatly impacted for any violation you are caught doing.
“It can get very expensive when you talk about these dangerous driving incidents,” said VinZant. “We found that it is going to vastly increase your car insurance premium. So if you get a speeding ticket, your insurance is likely to go up by 26 percent for the next three years. If you get in an accident, it could go up between 25 and 75 percent, and if you get a DUI, that could cost you in some states as much as $10,000 and extra premiums.”
On top of that, VinZant says even if you have a perfect driving record, you are likely to see your insurance rates go up in the next year or so. He says insurance premiums lag behind these types of surveys. He says your best option is to practice safe driving behavior so your insurance is as low as possible.
