Louisiana Has Worst Drivers in the U.S.!

Monday, April 27^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Louisiana Has Worst Drivers in the U.S.!

 

Say it isn’t so. The Bayou State, made up of docile souls who are law abiding, courteous and well-trained motorists, has just been tagged by several rating services as having the worst drivers in the nation. Look, the folks down here in the deepest of the deep Southern states do get a little rowdy now and then. Maybe Mardi Gras and Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. But day in and day out, we are a bunch of lousy drivers? It just can’t be!

Ah, mon cher, but the facts don’t lie. Pick your category of worst driving habits and you will see Louisiana motorists at the bottom of the ranking barrel. Some ratings agencies have even suggested that out of state drivers make a U-turn when they approach the Louisiana state line. Here are a few of the reasons why.

CarInsuranceComparison.com rates Louisiana as the number one state for failure to obey, number 5 in careless driving, 6^th in drunk driving, 4^th in average number of fatalities, and an overall rating of number 1 for worst drivers. Bankrate.com reaches the same conclusion that the worst drivers in the country are in Louisiana.

 

Road rage is front and center in a number of metropolitan  areas where irate drivers have gunned down a number of drivers where confrontations have taken place. Any number of hit and runs are a regular occurrence all over the state.

Let me give you my personal observations. I often travel each week from my home in Baton Rouge down to New Orleans on I-10, and once or twice a week to the Covington area on I-12. The posted speed limit is 70 miles an hour, and I generally go the speed limit and maybe even fudge a mile or two. On both interstates, you would think I was competing in the Daytona 500. Not just a few, but hundreds of cars whiz by me zipping along at 80, 85 or 90 miles an hour without giving a second thought to how much over the speed limit they are traveling.

This past Monday, it rained in torrents all over the state. The law is clear that when your windshield gets wet, drivers are required to turn on their headlights. On a trip to New Orleans on I-10, it seemed that every 6^th or 7^th car, in a major downpour, ignored the law and traveled without the car’s lights turned on.

 

DWIs? The penalties are strict, but too often are not imposed. A driver in Livingston Parish  appeared in court following multiple DWIs and a host of other drug related citations and arrests. He walked away with a suspended jail sentence and a small fine.

For a third offense DWI, the Louisiana law is quite clear. Jail time, loss of driving privileges for 5 years, and the driver’s car is impounded and sold. Too tough for such a violation? Heck no! Get these irresponsible drunks off the roads. I know this law well because I wrote it and presented it to the legislature back in 1994 when I served as Insurance Commissioner. Yet the tough law is almost never enforced.

The state police, who should have an acceptable level of troopers out on the interstates, are dramatically understaffed and are several hundred troopers short just for highway duty. The Louisiana legislature, in its wisdom, can find over one billion dollars for corporate giveaways, and millions for football and basketball teams, but no money to hire more of those who protect us.

Bad driving habits are based on personal responsibility and the right attitude. Laissez les bon temps roulez just doesn’t cut it when it comes to safety on the highways. There’s a brashness and arrogance by many drivers that endangers the rest of us. More enforcement is necessary, but it’s going to take the Governor and the legislature to step up and fund a major crack down. There is a lot at stake.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. 

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THE COMPLICATIONS OF RELIGION AND POLITICS!

Monday, April 13^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE COMPLICATIONS OF RELIGION AND POLITICS!

 

I have a request of all of our pontificating politicians. Leave God and me alone to work out our relationship. I consider myself a religious person, but I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve or preach to my neighbors. I have a “comfortable” relationship with the Good Lord. But it’s personal. It’s private. And I want to keep it that way. Political battles are not going to lead any of us to salvation, but that message seems to be lost on Republican and Democrat politicians alike.

 

American politicians today, are saturating their rhetoric with religious references for the purpose of bolstering a particular political point of view. According to a recent Pew Research poll, some 60% of Evangelical Christians support the use of torture against suspected terrorists. Among all regular once a week church goers, the approval rate of torture was 54%.  And according to a recent Rasmussen poll, 55% of Americans think hate is growing in this country. What gives? Why have so many mixed their political rhetoric with their religious beliefs?

 

In many instances, Christians point to the New Testament as the source for their beliefs on numerous public issues. Whatever happened to, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21)?

 

I’m a Thomas Jefferson fan and can make a compelling argument that he was America’s most outstanding President. Jefferson was surprisingly private concerning his religious beliefs, but was a professed Christian and studied the Bible extensively. His personal Bible is currently on display at the Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.  What is unique about it is that it has been carefully razor cut with a series of small sections missing.  Jefferson cut out what he believed to be the actual teachings of Jesus “and pasted them into a slimmer, different New Testament.”

Jefferson made clear his purpose. “We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus.” He was hoping to end up with “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which had ever been offered to man.”  And in his fine tuning of the biblical passages, Jefferson discovered the simple Jesus that so many with political agendas either have missed or purposely ignore.

Jefferson’s premise was simple. Why does religion have to be made so complicated?  If one is a Christian, doesn’t it all boil down to the two — the only two   — believe in a Supreme Being, and do good works?  That’s it. That should be what faith is all about and nothing more.

And such faith is the same foundation for not only Christians, but for Jews and Muslims alike,  the simple acts of believing in the Supreme Being and helping those in need. But too often, internal strife within the hierarchy of many denominations continues to divert attention from these two basic premises of believing in God and lending a hand.

Andrew Sullivan, writing in the London Sunday Times, laments that politics and religion, like oil and water, do not mix well. And he wonders if many religious denominations are straying from their basic goals.  “The saints, after all, became known as saints not because of their success in fighting political battles, or winning a few news cycles, or funding an anti-abortion super PAC. They were saints purely and simply because of the way they lived. “And this, of course, was Jefferson’s deeply American insight: “No man can conform his faith to the dictates of another. The life and essence of religion consists in the internal persuasion or belief of the mind.’“

Remember the Waylon Jennings song called Luckenbach Texas? The key line is “maybe it’s time to get back to the basics of life.” No one is going to find salvation by carrying on political battles. There is nothing wrong with picking a good political fight and going to the mat for a worthy cause, philosophy or a candidate. But the effort should be secular. When the political smoke clears, winners can crow and losers can lick their wounds. Then it’s time for both sides to go back to the basics.

 

 The simple obligation of acceptance and commitment. Believing in a higher being and offering a helping hand. Why do we make it all so complicated?

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com.  Readers can also review books by Jim Brown and many others he has published by going to http://www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

POLITICAL KILLING FIFTY YEARS AGO!

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 

It’s been fifty years ago that a major event happened in Louisiana political history.  Jim Leslie was gunned down in the parking lot of the Prince Murat Hotel in Baton Rouge.

 

I was just beginning my second term as a State Senator where I represented six parishes in northeast Louisiana. Labor-Management issues were not a big thing in my part of the state. I did not know a card-carrying union man from my district, and there was little industry of any size. But a proposed “Right-to-Work” law had become the major focus and controversy during the spring of the ’76 session of the Legislature.

 

Louisiana’s existing law required that when there was a union contract in place, all employees had to contribute part of their dues to that contract whether they belonged to the union or not. This was standard fare in most states throughout the country where there was a significant union presence. But the newly formed Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, headed by then President Ed Steimel, wanted to have “open shops” where the worker had a choice about whether or not to contribute union dues from his or her salary.

 

There was no middle ground on the issue. No compromise. Edwin Edwards was governor, and had strong support of union interests throughout the state. But he, as well as most of the other elected officials around the Capitol, were on the hot seat from advocates on both sides of this controversy.

 

It wasn’t that big of an issue for me, although I certainly received a lot of pressure. Like I pointed out earlier, there was virtually no union presence in my district, and even the smallest businesses were for a “Right-to-Work” law. This issue dominated the whole legislative session, and tensions filled with both sides actively lobbying legislators every day at the State Capitol.

 

To help promote its Right-to-Work effort, L.A.B.I. hired political consultant Jim Leslie to produce a series of TV spots. Leslie produced four TV spots that ran on every station in the state continually for two weeks. The timing was set right before the final vote in the Senate. The State House of Representatives had passed the Right-to-Work bill several weeks earlier, and the Leslie TV campaign was designed to build major, grass-roots support when the final vote came to the Senate.

 

The debate lasted all day in the State Senate, and you could cut the tension with a knife as I sat in my seat. By a slight margin, Louisiana’s new Right-to-Work law passed the Senate in late afternoon on Wednesday, July 8th, 1976. Jim Leslie was killed a few hours later.

 

The Right-to-Work supporters had a victory celebration that evening, and then Leslie and several friends headed back to the Prince Murat Hotel on Nicholson Drive. No one knows exactly what happened. Gun shots were fired, and Leslie slumped over dead in the parking lot.

 

Rumors ran wild, and some alleged that Mafia thugs tied to organized labor might in some way have something to do with the murder. This proved to be untrue, and it was a terrible time for those trying to find some rhyme or reason out of all the debate and the ultimate price paid by Leslie.

 

As it turned out, the story became even more bizarre. Leslie had handled the campaign of Shreveport Public Safety Commissioner George D’Artois. Back then, the office that was basically the Chief of Police of Shreveport was elected. D’Artois wouldn’t pay Leslie the fee he owed him for campaign related public relations work although Leslie continually complained. Finally, D’Artois sent a check on an account from the City of Shreveport. Leslie sent it back saying that a city check for campaign work was improper.

 

A local state thug with ties to D’Artois named Rusty Griffith was ultimately tagged as the trigger man. Griffith himself was assassinated up in my home of Concordia Parish some months later. Some say it was to shut him up from trying to blackmail D’Artois. D’Artois was charged with Leslie’s murder, but before he could be tried, he died of a heart attack. 

 

So many questions were left unanswered and no one knows for sure exactly what happened. The whole Leslie affair and his efforts in Right-to-Work is part of the fascinating political history of Louisiana over the past century. 

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com.  Readers can also review books by Jim Brown and many others he has published by going to http://www.thelisburnpress.com.