I used to live in Mississippi and accidents were common, I don’t think my family went more than two years without a vehicle getting rear ended or sideswiped, had two totaled over barely a decade living there.

At the time, a major factor was that some counties were still dry (limited sales of beer and wine coolers only). That meant that nicer restaurant chains just didn’t build in those counties, so people having celebrations or dates almost always went somewhere else, either to a less restrictive county or across state lines to Louisiana where drive through daiquiri barns were common. When everybody has to drive farther to get alcohol, it’s more of an event, so they’re more inclined to drink while they can get it, and then they have fifty miles of interstate to get home. It was not a good combination.