The group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety has given Arizona highways ranked Arizona's highway system as one of the least safe highway in the country. In its latest rankings, the group lists Arizona as the 49th safest in the country.

In compiling its rankings, AHSF compares each state's adherence to 15 different model highway safety laws. States can get credit for fully conforming to the recommended laws or for passing measures that partially conform to the models. In this most recent survey, Arizona is credited for adhering to only 4.5 of the recommended measures.

Among those highway safety laws that Arizona has not enacted are a primary seat belt law; mandatory blood-alcohol testing for surviving drivers involved in a fatal accident; and a number of teen driving restrictions. While Arizona has taken steps to comply with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recommendations on a mandatory booster seat law, according to the survey they still fall short of the model requirements.
Arizona also currently lacks a mandatory helmet law for motorcyclists, as well as a ban on texting while driving.

While the highway safety group ranked Arizona ahead of only South Dakota in terms of its highway safety laws, the news isn't all bad for the state. Just before the AHSF survey results were released, the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported that they investigated fewer fatal collisions in 2009 than in any of the past 15 years. This decrease in fatal accident investigations comes in spite of the fact that the number of motorists travelling state highways in Arizona has increased, as has the number of miles patrolled by the Department of Public Safety's highway patrol officers.

The Department of Public Safety also announced that the number fatal collisions that the agency investigates dropped by almost 50 percent from 2006 to 2009. In highway accidents investigated by the agency, the number of personal injuries sustained also declined to levels lower than those seen since 1995.