NH looks for new ways to prevent traffic deaths

Yahoo

25-02-2025

Feb. 24—Mark Munroe has worked in public safety for 40 years, but he had never seen the number of preventable traffic deaths like he saw in 2024.
"This is absolutely crazy," Munroe, a state highway safety program manager, said during Monday's New Hampshire Traffic Fatality Summit. "Every time we came into the office on Monday morning last summer, my coworkers, we were like, 'How many more were killed this weekend?'"
In 2024, 135 people died after crashes on New Hampshire roads, a 6% increase from the year before. So far this year, 11 people have died in crashes. The number of traffic deaths has been trending up since 104 people died in crashes in 2020.
To the more than 75 first responders, safety, transportation, health and municipal officials gathered in Concord on Monday, that's simply unacceptable.
"The state, collectively, every agency, we wrote about 40,000 speeding tickets last year," State Police Lt. Chris Storm said. "As far as DWI goes, we arrested about 3,500 DWIs across the across the board for all of our agencies in New Hampshire (in 2024). So, both of those are down from about 10 years ago. But everybody knows again, we have limited resources, limited people out there and some changes that are going on."
Much of the forum focused on coordinating safety measures through enforcing laws, collecting more complete crash data (and doing so faster), collaborating across state and local agencies, educating the public and enacting new laws with stiffer penalties.
But everything came back to one simple notion: All humans make mistakes, officials said.
No matter how invincible drivers feel in their comfy, multimedia-laden, road-noise-reducing highway cruisers with sizable blind spots, danger abounds and all drivers are culpable. You're driving a 3,000-pound or heavier killing machine that's built to lull you into delusions of grandeur while making exceeding 100 mph feel like going 50, officials said.
"As long as you have people who can decide how fast they can go and you have cars that can go 140 mph, you're going to have people who go 140 mph. That's human nature," New Hampshire Highway Safety Administrator William Lambert said.
Why so many crashes?
The rise in traffic deaths since 2020 has everyone from elected officials to health care professionals concerned.
The simplest explanations are usually impaired driving, speeding or distracted driving. Inattention is the No. 1 cause of all crashes in the state, officials said.
But under the distracted-driving umbrella there are several factors beyond the common perception of younger drivers texting and speeding.
Although there was a 233% rise in deaths among drivers 16 to 21 in 2024 (to a total of 10), that leaves 125 drivers who died despite being more experienced or having a perceived mastery of the road and knowledge of the law.
Distracted driving also means talking on a cellphone (even hands-free), listening to music, concentrating on GPS driving directions, talking to other people in the car, or even momentarily taking your eyes off the road.
And everyone gets distracted while driving, officials said.
Would new laws help?
Storm and state safety officials are pushing for multiple pieces of legislation, including stiffer penalties for reckless and distracted driving as well as speeding.
"Right now, we are currently working on several different bills," Storm said. "One is House Bill 42, (with) which we're trying to increase the penalties for people that are traveling over 100 mph."
Speeding and a rash of wrong-way drivers continue to exasperate police, Storm said.
"We've had a 230% increase from 2018 to 2024 in people traveling over 100 mph that are caught with the (State Police patrol aircraft) airplane. So, we've got to fix this problem."
State Police Sgt. Brian Ross said there should also be a mandatory minimum time in prison for drivers who kill someone.
"I'm seeing a big uptick throughout the state in convictions for negligent homicide, where individuals who weren't intoxicated or impaired by substances aren't seeing any jail time. It's all suspended jail time," Ross said. "If you commit a homicide, if you shoot someone with a gun, or whatever the case may be, there would be prison time for that.
"So, I think we need a culture change just as far as being behind the wheel of the motor vehicle if you end up hitting and killing someone, whether you're impaired or not, there should be some kind of minimum mandatory jail time in my eyes for that."
[e-mail]