Epic fail: 38 million American drivers lack basic knowledge to pass written driving test

Texting-while-driving-585 This latest news probably comes as no surprise to anyone who drives a car on American roads and/or watches Jay Leno's Jay Walking segment on the Tonight Show.

A new survey released today confirms what many American drivers already suspect: we've turned into a nation of drivers who don't know the basic rules of the road.

The annual GMAC Insurance National Drivers test found that 1 in 5 current drivers couldn't pass a written driving test while even a great percentage are distracted while driving.

"It's discouraging to see that overall average test scores are lower
than last year," said Wade Bontrager, senior vice president of GMAC
Insurance, in a prepared statement.

According to CNN:

"Nearly three out of four couldn't identify safe following distances and
some 85% incorrectly responded to questions about what to do when
approaching a steady yellow light. This signals that licensed drivers
lack knowledge of fundamental road rules, GMAC Insurance said"

So what part of the country has the best, and what part of the country has the worst scores and potentially drivers as well?

CNN reports that:

"- Drivers in the Midwest
scored 77.5% on average, the highest among all regions, and had the
lowest failure rates at 11.9%.

– Conversely, the Northeast scored the
worst with an average score of 74.9% and had the highest failure rate of
25.1%.

– Drivers in Kansas topped the nation with an 82.3% average
score, while New Yorkers were last on the list with a score of 70%."

To make matters even worse a full 25 percent (or one in four) of drivers surveyed admitted to multitasking while driving. In other words texting or sending emails or eating.

"The really sad thing is that you see [texting while driving] more and
more in young drivers," said Bontrager. "They are not only the least
experienced, but also need to pay the most attention to the road."

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