People who drive Hummers receive almost five times as many traffic tickets as the average driver, according to a new study.

Quality Planning Corp., which helps insurance companies identify risk, surveyed data from 1.7 million drivers and found the Hummer H2 and H3 are the most frequently ticketed vehicles on the road, surpassing even the 565-horsepower Mercedes CLK 63 AMG. At the other end of the spectrum, the Jaguar XJ GMC Sierra CL1500 pickup was the vehicle least likely to attract the attention of Johnny Law.

The study found those who drive the leviathans get 4.63 times as many tickets as the average driver, something the researchers attribute to the feeling of invincibility that comes from driving a rolling bank vault.

"The sense of power that Hummer drivers derive from their vehicle may be directly correlated with the number of violations they incur, or perhaps Hummer drivers, by virtue of their driving position, are less likely to notice road hazards, signs, pedestrians and other drivers," Raj Bhat, president of Quality Planning, said in a statement.

Mark S. Foster, author of "A Nation on Wheels: The Automobile Culture in America Since 1945," was even more direct, essentially calling Hummer drivers colossal jerks.

"Hummer drivers feel like kings of the road because of their elevated driving positions," he said. "As these statistics show, they are leading the pack when it comes to violating the law, which may reflect their driving attitude."

Ouch.

The study suggests such an attitude is unique to Hummer drivers and doesn't apply to everyone in an SUV, because the the Hummer was followed by the diminutive Scion tC and xB. People behind the wheel of those cars were 4.6 and 4.03 times, respectively, as likely to get tickets than the average driver. The researchers attributed that to the fact the average Scion driver is in his or her early 20s. Other vehicles on the top-10 list included the Toyota Solara and Subaru Outback.

What's weird is the Hummer is essentially a Chevrolet Tahoe under the skin, but Tahoe drivers were less likely than average to be ticketed for moving violations. Other cars on the do-gooder list include the Jaguar XJ and Buick Lucerne.

So, are Hummer drivers being persecuted by state troopers? The boys at The Hummer Club would probably say yes, considering how widely reviled their vehicles are. But we're not so sure. There's not a lot of evidence suggesting cops target specific vehicles for tickets. A lot of people argue people in red cars are more likely to get stopped, for example, but the guys at Edmunds.com say that's a myth.

Hummer drivers, therefore, have some serious explaining to do.

POST UPDATED 1:15 p.m. PDT and 4:00 p.m. PDT.

Photo: DaRoiT / Flickr.