13-02-2025
Safety officials seek tougher highway offense penalties
Feb. 12—With highway fatalities involving New Hampshire youth sharply on the rise, state safety officials sought legislative support Wednesday for a package of bills to increase punishment for those caught speeding over 100 miles per hour, driving the wrong way or refusing to take a blood alcohol test.
Chris Storm, State Police lieutenant and liaison to the Office of Highway Safety, told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee that it used to be a "big deal" when someone was caught driving over 100 mph.
"Now every time we put the helicopter into the air we get two or three cases of motorists going that fast," Storm said.
Bill Lambert, a Department of Transportation administrator, said cars have been built to go much faster than the maximum target speed that a roadway is designed to safely allow.
"If people are doing twice the design speed, the physics just don't work," Lambert said, pointing to last October when drivers in three straight weeks went airborne over a median on Interstate 95 into oncoming traffic.
Currently, the maximum speeding fine is $500 and a suspension of driving privileges for 60 days.
This bill (HB 482) for driving over 100 would raise the fine to $750 on the first offense with a 90-day license suspension. The fine would go up to $1,000 and a license suspension of up to a year.
The wrong-way driving bill (HB 776) would subject the offender, if found to be impaired, to enhanced penalties used for someone who commits aggravated drunk or drugged driving.
Storm said a majority of those caught driving the wrong way have been using drugs or alcohol.
Committee Chairman Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, said the state has the highest rate in the country of motorists suspected of impaired driving who refuse to take the blood alcohol test.
This is because penalties for those who refuse and those who consent and fail to take the test are the same, he said.
"We don't want to be last in the country for this," Roy said.
In New Hampshire, roughly 70% of such drivers have refused to take the test each of the last three years, while the national refusal rate was about 25%, said Ryan McFarland, the administrator of the hearings bureau that reviews the cases.
Under the bill (HB 466), anyone who refuses to take a blood alcohol test loses their license for one year while those who take the test and fail would still face a six-month suspension.
A repeat case of refusal would carry a three-year suspension, up from two years under current law, McFarland said.
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