Rankings

Study: South Carolina is the Most Dangerous State for Motorcyclists

Published

12 months ago

October 31, 2023

A new study has named South Carolina as the most dangerous state in the country for motorcyclists.

Personal injury attorneys at Auto Justice Attorney conducted a comprehensive analysis using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the US Department of Transportation. The data determined the number of motorcycle accidents occurring annually in each state, taking into account the 10.5 million motorcycles registered across the country. To provide a clearer picture of the accident landscape, the data calculated a ranking based on the number of crashes per 100,000 motorcycle registrations in each state.

South Carolina is the most dangerous state for motorcyclists, where each year, for every 100,000 motorcycles registered in the state, 158.1 riders are involved in a fatal crash. That’s enough motorcyclists to fill three standard Greyhound buses and a 174.5% increase on the national average of 57.59 crashes. South Carolina also saw more front, right, and rear collisions with motor vehicles than any other state per 100,000 registered motorcycles.

Texas is the second most dangerous state for motorcycle riders. For every 100,000 motorcycles registered in the Lone Star state, more than 157 riders are involved in fatal crashes. Texas riders face the highest rates of collisions with fixed objects (which can include road signs or low-hanging branches), recording 38.74 per 100,000 motorcycles. These incidents involve everything from static structures like mailboxes to natural obstructions like trees.

The state with the most dangerous roads for motorcyclists:

Rank	State	Crashes per 100,000 registered motorcycles
1.	South Carolina	158.10
2.	Texas	157.01
3.	North Carolina	124.13
4.	Missouri	119.80
5.	Mississippi	116.39
6.	Nevada	112.73
7.	Florida	104.48
8.	Kentucky	102.28
9.	New Mexico	97.36
10.	Delaware	94.50
11.	Hawaii	94.35
12.	Georgia	88.69
13.	Louisiana	86.95
14.	Tennessee	86.01
15.	Connecticut	80.51
16.	Maryland	78.26
17.	Colorado	77.65
18.	California	71.35
19.	Michigan	69.58
20.	Idaho	65.87
21.	Alabama	63.26
22.	Virginia	62.20
23.	New Jersey	62.03
24.	West Virginia	60.88
25.	Pennsylvania	60.74
26.	Indiana	60.67
27.	Oregon	60.35
28.	Illinois	57.52
29.	Ohio	54.78
30.	Arizona	54.63
31.	Rhode Island	52.35
32.	Wyoming	51.70
33.	Kansas	49.63
34.	Massachusetts	48.14
35.	Vermont	47.70
36.	Oklahoma	46.76
37.	Nebraska	41.05
38.	Washington	37.90
39.	Wisconsin	37.04
40.	Maine	35.09
41.	Iowa	35.06
42.	Minnesota	31.71
43.	Utah	29.79
44.	New Hampshire	28.23
45.	Alaska	27.22
46.	New York	23.61
47.	Arkansas	23.11
48.	North Dakota	21.42
49.	South Dakota	10.32
50.	Montana	6.89
–	US Average	57.59