Georgiaranked on the safer side in a new analysis examining driving safety across the country, placing the state outside the 10 states with the highest composite danger scores.
The 2026 report from Ravid & Associatesevaluated states using several measures of traffic safety, including fatality rates, speeding-related deaths, alcohol-impaired driving and seat belt use.
Georgia recorded a danger score of 44.21 in the analysis, ranking No. 34 in the U.S.
Here's what the ranking means for Georgia drivers.
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Where Georgia ranks
According to the report, Georgia recorded 12.5 traffic deaths per 100,000 residents and 1.15 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2024.
The analysis also found that speeding was involved in 24% of traffic
deaths in Georgia, while an estimated 25% involved alcohol impairment. The state's observed front seat-belt use rate was listed at 89%.
Georgia recorded 1,403 traffic deaths in 2024, according to the data used in the report.
Which states ranked highest?
Georgia did not make the report's top 10 most dangerous states. Those rankings were led by:
- Montana
- South Carolina
- Wyoming
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- New Mexico
- Texas
- Mississippi
- South Dakota
The rankings are based on each state's relative performance across the five measures rather than a prediction of an individual driver's chances of being involved in a crash.
What the ranking does and doesn't show
The report's No. 34 ranking does not mean Georgia is the 34th most likely place for an individual driver to crash. Instead, it reflects how Georgia compared with other states across the five factors included in the analysis.
The report also notes that alcohol-involvement estimates can be less reliable in states where blood alcohol concentration was reported for 70% or fewer fatally injured drivers.
Methodology
Ravid & Associates created a composite score using five traffic-safety measures. Fatalities per 100,000 residents accounted for 30% of the score, while fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled accounted for 25%.
Speeding-related crash deaths and alcohol-impaired driving each represented 15%, while observed seat belt use accounted for the remaining 15%, with lower seat belt use increasing the risk score.
The report relied primarily on 2024 data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, along with federal vehicle-miles-traveled data.
Seat belt information came from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's observational survey.
For the full report, visit ravidandassociates.com/most-dangerous-states-for-drivers-2026.
Vanessa Johns is the Trending Topics Reporter for the Deep South Connect Team Georgia, covering food and entertainment. Email her at Vcountryman@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: How dangerous are Georgia roads? Here's what caused the most deaths in GA
