State says NH roads getting deadlier by the day
Deadly driving crashes continue to rise across New Hampshire with 2025 already outpacing last year, when 135 roadway deaths marked a 6% increase overall and young driver deaths spiked at an alarming rate, transportation officials said.
As of Monday morning, 45 people had died in crashes across the state since Jan. 1, according to Mark Munroe, highway safety program manager for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.
Yearly traffic deaths have been trending up since 104 people died in crashes in 2020. In 2024, deaths among drivers age 16 to 21 more than doubled, with 10 fatalities.
Most recently, a teen was killed in a motor vehicle incident in Bedford Sunday night. Details of that incident have not been released.
So far this year, four drivers under 21 have died, compared with three over the same time period last year. There's been an even bigger spike in deaths among drivers over 70 — 11 deaths, nearly double for that age range, Munroe said.
To address the number of roadway deaths, last year the state relaunched a program called Driving Toward Zero, which aims to reduce traffic fatalities by 50% by 2030. This past February, 75 first responders, safety, transportation, health and municipal officials held a Traffic Fatality Summit aimed at curbing the trend.
Munroe could not be reached for further comment Tuesday afternoon, but said in late February he had never seen anything like the deadly trends across the state in his 40 years working in public safety. Both Munroe and State Police Lt. Chris Storm have repeatedly voiced concern and frustration with the deadly trends they're seeing.
New laws considered
This year, legislators have considered three bills addressing recent dangerous driving trends. None have passed so far.
HB 466 would have made it so anyone who refuses to take a blood-alcohol test loses their license for a year. Representatives killed that bill and a similar state Senate bill.
HB 482 would have raised the fine for driving over 100 mph to $750 on the first offense with a 90-day license suspension. The state Senate tabled the bill last month. However, the House and Senate are working on similar legislation.
HB 776 would add wrong-way driving to the list of factors that elevate driving while intoxicated or impaired to aggravated DWI, which has stiffer penalties. State Police said there were 271 wrong-way drivers reported in 2024. The bill passed both the House and Senate and is awaiting a conference committee after it was amended by the Senate.
More statistics
Of the 45 people killed this year, 26 were drivers, eight were not wearing a seat belt, six were pedestrians and eight were on motorcycles.
The number of pedestrians killed is double what it was at this time last year.
dpierce@unionleader.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'I call it a rebellion': Maxine Waters' history of enflaming crowds, from Rodney King to today
Eighteen-term Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters resurfaced in the news after several run-ins with federal authorities during the ongoing illegal immigration riots in California, just as her House tenure began amid prior Angeleno unrest. In 1992, as she was finishing her first term in Congress, the not-guilty verdict against White LAPD officers seen beating a Black motorist named Rodney King sparked a similar conflagration in Los Angeles, and Waters was in the midst of it then as well. The riots greatly affected her South Los Angeles district, and Waters was quoted at the time as appearing to downplay the violence not as a "riot" but as "just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason." "I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion," she said, according to the Los Angeles Times. Maxine Waters Torched By Feds For 'Taunting' Guardsmen And 'Spewing Lies' About Riots, Trying To Enter Jail Waters had joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson in trying to convince the Justice Department to file civil rights charges against the acquitted officers, blaming the rioting on Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Daryl Gates and President George H.W. Bush, according to famed journalist Robert Novak. Read On The Fox News App When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., attempted to have Waters expelled from Congress in 2021 for "inciting violence and terrorism," the Democrat claimed some of her past remarks were taken out of context. "I am not worried that they're going to continue to distort what I say," she told The Grio after Greene led her resolution with Waters' Rodney King-era statements. Greene said Waters violated House Rule 23's clause regarding conduct by members "at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House." At a 2007 anti-war protest, Waters declared she was "not afraid of George Bush" and also pledged to "get rid of" then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. She later drew the ire of Greene and other Republicans when she told an LGBTQ gala, "I will go and take out Trump tonight." Defenders said she was speaking rhetorically and politically and not threatening the mogul. Later in Trump's first administration, Waters was filmed on a California street corner shouting at supportive demonstrators and instructing them to be disruptive toward Trump allies. Maxine Waters Taunts Armed Agents After Feds Slam Door On Her During La Riots: 'You Better Shoot Straight' "If you see anybody … in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd, and you push back on them. And you tell them that they are not welcome." She later said she did not physically threaten Trump supporters, though then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had earlier been run out of a Lexington, Va., restaurant and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was accosted at a Washington, D.C., eatery. In April 2021, Waters rallied in Brooklyn Center, Minn., while ex-Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was on trial for the murder of George Floyd. Waters was recorded telling protesters to "stay" in the street and warned that if the jury delivered a not-guilty verdict, "We cannot go away … we've got to get more confrontational." The comments caught the attention of trial Judge Peter Cahill, suggesting the comments could lead to a defense appeal and also disrespected the judicial branch. Waters later pushed back on some characterizations, saying, "I am nonviolent. I talk about confronting the justice system. … I'm talking about speaking up." In February, Waters appeared in front of the Department of Education building in Washington along with other House Democrats. A security guard was confronted as lawmakers tried to gain entry to voice concerns about Secretary Linda McMahon's downsizing plans. This week, while riots again raged in Los Angeles, Waters hurried toward a group of National Guardsmen entering the plywood-covered door of the Metropolitan Detention Center. "I just came to use my congressional authority to check on David Huerta," she said, referring to the SEIU union leader arrested during an immigration raid. A Guardsman told Waters to contact "public affairs" and slammed the door in her face. She was later seen asking armed Guardsmen if they planned to shoot her, why they were there and that the conflict was President Donald Trump's fault. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital after that incident that instead of "taunting" Guardsmen, Waters should have been trying to assuage the unrest. While some of her recent Republican challengers, like Joe Collins and Omar Navarro, have received hefty donations from around the country due to her polarizing comments, the 86-year-old has been re-elected with typically 70% of the vote. Fox News Digital reached out to Waters for comment but did not immediately hear back. Fox News' Leonard Balducci contributed to this article source: 'I call it a rebellion': Maxine Waters' history of enflaming crowds, from Rodney King to today
The Hill
19 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump signs measure to overturn California's EV mandate
President Trump moved to overturn California's electric vehicle (EV) mandate on Thursday, setting off another legal fight with the Golden State. Trump signed a congressional resolution that overturns a California state rule that would have phased out the sale of gas powered cars by 2035. The California rule, and the decision to revoke it, are a massive deal for the auto market. The state makes up about 12 percent of the U.S. population. Its rule has also been adopted by 11 other states and Washington D.C. California says its rule would benefit both public health and the environment, reducing both emissions that contribute to global warming and the amount of pollution its residents are exposed to. The state estimates that its rule would prevent nearly 1,300 cardiopulmonary deaths between 2026 and 2040. California has already said that it would sue the Trump administration over the move, which Congress sent to the president after flouting its own internal arbiters. The Biden administration approved California's rule late last year, and that Biden-era approval is what is actually being revoked. A law known as the Congressional Review Act (CRA) gives Congress, with presidential approval, the right to rescind recently passed regulations. But the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, and the Senate parliamentarian both determined that the Biden-era approval was a waiver rather than a rule, and therefore the CRA does not apply. The House voted to rescind the waiver regardless, and the Senate took procedural steps to sidestep those determinations by first voting on a 'point of order' as to whether waivers could be overturned by the CRA. The decision comes with tensions at an all time high between California and the Trump administration after the president sent in the military over Los Angeles protests against his immigration policies.
2 hours ago
Republican South Carolina House member charged with distributing child sexual abuse material
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A Republican South Carolina House member who prosecutors say used the screen name 'joebidennnn69' has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of distributing sexual abuse material involving children. RJ May was arrested Wednesday at his Lexington County home after a lengthy investigation and is scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday. An indictment says the three-term Republican used several online names including 'joebidennnn69' to exchange files on the Kik social media network. The indictment didn't contain any additional details on the charges, which carry prison terms of five to 20 years upon conviction. May is a political consultant who has angered fellow House Republicans by running campaigns for candidates running against GOP incumbents in primaries. After his election in 2020, May helped create the Freedom Caucus, a group of the House's most conservative members who have run their own candidate against the Republican House speaker and refuse to join the Majority Caucus because they say it requires a loyalty pledge. The mainstream House Republicans aren't the true conservative heart of the GOP, the group said. The Freedom Caucus released a statement Wednesday night saying they kicked May out of their group after his arrest. May was one of the House's more vocal members after he arrived, frequently criticizing bills and discussing conservative amendments. 'We as legislators have an obligation to insure that out children have no harm done to them,' May said in January 2024 on the House floor during a debate on transgender care for minors. His oldest son charmed the House in April 2021 when May brought him to visit for his third birthday and the boy practiced his parade wave around the chamber. But that stopped in October, when federal prosecutors filed court papers saying the investigators seized a number of electronic devices from May, and they anticipated filing a criminal indictment. The documents provided no further details, but speculation has grown about the case. Many have distanced themselves from May, who during the current session could largely be seen at his corner desk in the back of the 124-seat chamber, mixing with very few colleagues.
