If you feel like you’re putting your life on the line every time you get behind the wheel in Costa Rica, now you’ve got some statistics to back up your anxiety.
In a recent report from Australian fleet management firm Global Positioning Specialists (GPS) that ranked the most dangerous countries for drivers, Costa Rica comes in fourth on the list. Though the country often ranks high near more enviable lists like the Happiness Index, this unwanted designation takes into account Costa Rica’s relatively bad infrastructure, among other negative factors.
The study measured three categories: road conditions, traffic fatalities, and car theft. On a scale of 1 (among the worst in the world) to 7 (among the world’s best), Costa Rica’s road quality scored a 2.8. In road traffic deaths and vehicle theft rates per 100,000 people, the country also ranked poorly.
As seen in the infographic above, Costa Rica ranked in the top 20 for all individual categories, with its worst rating coming in road quality.
A spokesman from GPS said methodology for the road quality index came from the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015 where roads are also ranked by a 1-to-7 scale. In that list, Costa Rica’s roads ranked 119th out of the 141 polled countries.
Lebanon was named the most dangerous country for drivers, while Uruguay and Colombia rounded out the top three ahead of Costa Rica. The United States ranked as the 12th worst country for drivers and was noted for its high vehicular crime rate.
In November, the Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) reported the lowest amount of accident-related deaths for any month in the past three years, with 20 registered traffic fatalities.
