South Dakota Ranks 20th For Teen Driver Safety Nationwide

Being a new driver comes with more than its fair share of challenges.

You can take all of the written tests you want, but at some point the only way to learn is to actually get behind the wheel and hope for the best.

About 12.4 million Americans aged 15 to 20 hold a driver's license. Where they live sets what their families pay, how much supervised practice the law requires, and how likely a new driver is to be in a fatal crash.

But the calendar also plays a huge role.

Recently, AAA reviewed federal crash data and found that more than 30% of deaths in crashes involving a teen driver from 2019 through 2023 occurred between Memorial Day and Labor Day, a stretch it calls the 100 Deadliest Days.

So which states are producing the worst new drivers?

MoneyGeek combined four measures to rank where those conditions are worst:

Fatal crash involvement for drivers aged 15 to 20
Cost of monthly premium to insure a 16-year-old
How much room a state has to strengthen its graduated licensing law
Local driving conditions

After crunching the numbers, the study found that South Dakota's new drivers ranked as the 20th most dangerous in America, with the 10th lowest fatal crash rate, third-lowest monthly insurance premiums ($141), 6th highest room to strengthen licensing laws, and 13th highest adverse weather days annually (99).

Top 20 Most Dangerous States for New Drivers

Florida
Louisiana
Mississippi
New Mexico
Montana
Arizona
Tennessee
Missouri
Alaska
Wyoming
Texas
Idaho
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Kansas
North Carolina
Arkansas
Delaware
Iowa
South Dakota

Overall, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Montana are the safest states for new drivers.

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What Did South Dakota's License Plate Look Like the Year You Were Born?

The first number on a South Dakota license plate is the county that the car is registered. For example, Pennington county where Rapid City is has a '2' starting its plates. In Sioux Falls you have either a '1' or a '44' depending on your relationship to 57th street.

When established in 1956 (and revised in 1987) the first nine counties were ordered by population. Starting with 10 they are in alphabetical order through Ziebach, with Oglala Lakota County (65) and Todd (67) rounding out the list.

Today the top 10 plate numbers and populations don't correlate anymore. 1 and 2 are still 1 and 2, but Lincoln (44) is now 3rd in population. Beadle is 4 but it's now 11th in population. See the list by population here.

On January 1, 2023, South Dakota started issuing a new license plate design for license plates.

So, let's take a look back at what South Dakota license plates looked like over the last 100 years.

Gallery Credit: Ben Kuhns

Worst Parking Lots in Sioux Falls Metro

Let's face it, some of the parking lots in the Sioux Falls metro are pretty hard to navigate. Sometimes it feels as though you're taking a risk driving through them on a busy day.

We made a list of some of the worst parking lots in the Sioux Falls Metro. Be extra careful while guiding your vehicle in these tricky lots.

Is the parking lot you dread driving in the most on this list? Take a look and find out.

Why Are There So Many South Dakota License Plates in Mexico?

An odd thing that's puzzled folks vacationing in Mexico is that there seems to be an abundance of South Dakota license plates. In fact, there are so many, it doesn't make sense.

Gallery Credit: Andy Gott