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Nadine Wimmer Reporting"Utah Drivers" sums up our reputation on the road in this state, and it's not a term of endearment. Are you part of the problem?
Up to 90-percent of drivers polled by the safety council believe they're better than average, no Utah Drivers here. But we found five ways to help you gauge whether or not you're really guilty, when we heard these confessions behind the wheel.
Jason McRae: “I have eight tickets on my record.”
The Rolling Stopper never met a stop sign he didn't like to run.
Mike Behle: “It just bugs me when people go too slow.”
The Lead Foot believes anything under 70 is too slow
Travis Megrew: “Sometimes I’ll flip them off.”
The Aggressor tailgates and intimidates anyone is his way.
EJ Cash: “I had a little bit of road rage that morning.”
The Road Rager.
Austin Holder: “They did suspend my license.”
The barely street legal.
These fearsome five have nearly 30 recent tickets among them. If they have insurance it's out the roof, and most have been ordered by a judge to attend defensive driving school.
Katherine Stewart: “My car creeped up to 94 miles an hour and I was stopped by a state trooper.”
Thomas Eddy: “I rammed into that vehicle on purpose because he wouldn’t stop firing into my vehicle.”
Jason Anderson: “I try and compensate for the idiocracies of others.”
These confessions don't raise an eyebrow with their veteran instructor.
Cal Dahl, Instructor: “We have worse drivers on the streets than I’ve ever seen.”
Are you guilty too? Think about your driving habits. Do you often ignore stop signs and other signals? Do you ever tailgate or drive impatiently? Ever lose your temper? There may some of them in many of us, and it's not just how you drive, the surest fit in the profile is how you think.
Cal Dahl: “We’ve got more people that have got a serious selfish attitude about the roads. It’s my roads, not our roads.”
Another lesson in driving school--just because you don't think you're a bad driver, doesn't mean you're not a bad driver.
Mike Behle: “The other people driving slow. If everybody just drove the same speed limit we’d be good.” SOT Bonnie Rascone: “48 in a 25. I didn’t think it was marked very clear. It wasn’t a residence, so I’m innocent.”
Not surprisingly, these tendencies fit the profile, they shift blame. It took hours of class and confession before these hardened "Utah Drivers" say they've seen the light.
Jason Mcrae: “It’s cool to obey the rules.”
Katherine Stewart: “I now put my car on cruise control at not any more than five miles over the speed limit on the highway.”
EJ Cash: “After being in this class, I do realize some of the things I’ve been doing is wrong.”
Cal Dahl: “I have no problem with people having this second chance sort of thing, as long as when they go out of here something’s changed here.”
These profiles are becoming more central to how insurance companies assess risk. So these kinds of attitudes could end up costing you a premium.
