Using your phone while driving is never safe, but we certainly should not be distracted while driving through school zones.

A website known as Zendrive, did a comprehensive analysis to look at how often people use their phones in school zones all across the United States. Not every school zone had enough driving data to gather statistics but there were plenty across North Dakota that did.

So we thought we would look at their data in Morton and Burleigh Counties to see how often people use their phones while driving through schools in the area.

For what it's worth, the data is very simplistic. Zendrive gave each state, each county, and each school area a different letter grade (A through F, including pluses and minuses) and then an addition rating out of 'five phones.' Rather than a five star rating, Zendrive used little phone icons. five out of five phones means that there is heavy phone usage in the area. Of course zero out of five phones means phones are scarcely used in that area. Unlike ratings of movies or products, a zero in this case is obviously better than a five.

The study analyzed only seven schools in Morton County. There were 32 schools analyzed in Burleigh County.

Only schools in 16 counties across North Dakota were analyzed.

Let's start with the data for North Dakota overall. The state in general received a B, meaning generally speaking, people drive safely near schools throughout the state though there is obviously plenty of room for improvement.

Morton County as a whole received a B-. But out of all the 16 counties analyzed, Morton County was ranked 12th out of 16th, making it one of the more reckless counties in the state.

Burleigh County on the other hand was ranked the most dangerous county in the state with a D rating.

You can see the full rankings and how each individual school ranked here. In Morton County, the safest schools were Mandan Public Schools getting an A grade and 0 out of 5 phones.

No schools in Mandan got a grade lower than a B.

In Burleigh County, five schools received a D ranking with several others getting a C. However, there were a bunch of schools that received A's.

 

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