This company says Missouri drivers are among the worst in the U.S. What about Kansas?

Missouri drivers are bad — and they appear to be getting worse, according to a new ranking by financial technology company SmartAsset.

Missouri tied with California for third worst in the latest list of States with the Worst Drivers, a ranking by SmartAsset, a firm that provides financial advice online.

Only drivers in Mississippi, which ranked No. 1, and Tennessee, ranked No. 2, were worse than those in California and Missouri.

Even more bad news for Missouri: The state keeps climbing closer to the top of the list. Just last year, Missouri ranked 11th on the list. In 2016, it ranked 12th.

In determining the states with the worst drivers, SmartAsset looks at fatalities per 100 million miles driven, drunken driving arrests per 1,000 drivers, percentage of drivers who are insured and how often residents use Google to search speeding and traffic tickets.

Missouri tied with California this year partly because it ranked 10th for the rate of drivers searching traffic tickets or speeding tickets online. This is “an indication that residents are getting tickets more than in other states,” according to SmartAssets.

Also, a high number of drivers go without insurance in Missouri, which can make accidents more costly. The death rate per 100 miles driven is high in Missouri, compared to other states. Data shows 1.28 deaths for every 100 million miles traveled in the state. That’s up from a rate of 1.21 deaths in 2015.

Missouri’s fatality rate climbed while rates are falling nationwide.

Meanwhile, Kansas ranked 14th best, slightly down from 2017, when it ranked 11th best.

This story was originally published August 20, 2018 at 11:52 AM.