Three people taking selfies while driving in a car

It's scary to know the hashtag #driving can be found on over 3 million selfies posted to Instagram. Though most social media trends are innocent enough, “car selfies” pose an absurd risk to all drivers on the road. In 2016, The Auto Insurance Center conducted a study that broke down the number of car selfies found on Instagram by state and ranked them. In order to figure out which states had the most drivers taking this crazy risk, we listed the top and bottom five on the list. Where does your home state rank on the list? Are you surprised?

There’s Nothing Wrong With Taking Selfies … Unless You’re Driving

  • It’s more and more commonplace to take “car selfies” and share them on social media with hashtags such as #DrivingSelfie, #EyesOffTheRoad and #IhopeIdontcrash.
     
  • According to a study by the Auto Insurance Center in 2016, driving-related hashtags hit a new high, and by the first quarter of 2017, there were 22,690 such Instagram posts.
     
  • An additional 50,000 photos posted to Instagram have the hashtag #drivinghome, #drivingtowork and #carselfie. Combined, they account for nearly 15,000 posts to Instagram.

Which State Is Guilty of Taking the Most #Drivingselfies?

To conduct the study, the Auto Insurance Center analyzed more than 155,000 Instagram posts with many of the driving-related hashtags listed above, over a six-year period. 

The Top 5:

  • 1st -- Wyoming: The smallest state in the country by population had the most drivers taking selfies and posting them to Instagram, at 43.72 posts per 100,000 residents!
  • 2nd – Nevada: 41.2 posts (per 100,000 residents)
  • 3rd – Utah: 38.8 posts (per 100,000 residents)
  • 4th – New York: 33.6 posts (per 100,000 residents)
  • 5th – Hawaii: 31.7 posts (per 100,000 residents)

The Bottom 5:

  • 1st – Mississippi: These drivers took the fewest “car selfies” with only 2.48 posts per 100,000 residents
  • 2nd – Iowa: 4.40 posts (per 100,000 residents)
  • 3rd – Arkansas: 5.42 posts (per 100,000 residents)
  • 4th – Delaware: 5.46 posts (per 100,000 residents)
  • 5th – Kansas: 5.71 posts (per 100,000 residents)

Our law firm serves drivers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, and our states ranked fairly well overall! We saw above that Iowa had the second fewest selfies, Wisconsin was eighth from the bottom at 6.37 posts (per 100,000 residents) and Illinois ranked somewhere between in the middle.

This distracted driving fad will only grow on social media unless discouraged, as each new post will be encouraging others to do the same by making it seem cool. At Hupy and Abraham, we know the dangers of distracted driving. 

For information about distracted driving or to speak to an experienced car accident attorney about a wreck caused by a distracted driver.

Have You Been Injured in a Wisconsin, Illinois, or Iowa Car Accident?

If you've been injured in a car accident you should speak to an experienced car accident attorney as soon as possible. You can contact us online or call our office directly at 800.800.5678 to schedule your free consultation with one of our car accident lawyers. We have been helping car accident victims since 1964 and service clients throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa

Jill Erin Wellskopf
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Director of Marketing, Hupy and Abraham