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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah drivers have been out in record numbers this holiday weekend, enjoying their favorite places, but how honest are they when they're behind the wheel?
If you accidentally scratched or dented somebody's car while driving, would you leave a note with contact information?
An auto dealer in another state asked 3,000 people that question and came up with an honesty index.
According to the unscientific poll, nearly 1 in 3 people, 30%, said they would not leave a note. But in Utah, 91% said they would leave a note, which is the highest percentage on the honesty scale.
Utah tied with Arkansas for the top spot, while South Dakota had the greatest number of drivers that would not fess up.
Utahns that spoke with KSL-TV said they would not simply drive away.
"I would absolutely leave a note," said Lesli Henshaw.
But Henshaw said she's not so sure that most people would. She believes only 1 in 4 people would do the right thing and leave a note. That could be because she's been on the wrong end of this kind of incident before.
"It's actually happened to me," she said. "You can see the ding on my door. It upset me so much, and I wish somebody would have left a note, at least apologizing."
What Henshaw wanted most was an apology. She joked that her car must have been hit by that 1 in 10 Utahn who is willing to drive away.
Some people we spoke with about the survey even said they would stick around to tell the car owner in person.
"I would wait a little bit for them to show up, obviously," said Chris Aronitz. "If they weren't there after a few minutes, just leave a note with my contact information, explaining the situation."
Incidents like this are more common than you might think — more than half of the drivers surveyed (53%) said something like this had happened to them and no one left a note.
