A new state report suggesting ways to reduce road fatalities wants to convince drivers to act safely through penalties and education, including by closing what it says is a loophole that encourages drivers to avoid roadside blood-alcohol tests.
The Governor’s Special Task Force on Highway Safety includes some 20 legislators, an equal number of law-enforcement and legal officials, as well as various road-safety advocates.
The task force was spurred in part by an increase in fatal crashes on state roads and highways after the COVID-19 shutdowns. That figure that has remained stubbornly high — 134 in the most recent year — although New Hampshire’s tally is relatively low compared to many other states.
Its Preliminary Findings and Recommendations report, released Wednesday, includes dozens of suggestions for “increased enforcement, enhanced education and training and some rule and policy changes” to improve safety and limit roadway deaths. It provided guidance on the terminology used to refer to collisions, as well.
“Calling these events ‘accidents’ blunts accountability. The term implies inevitability, excusing conduct that our laws, engineering and common sense already know how to deter,” the report says. “‘Crash’ is the accurate word; it places responsibility squarely on the driver who chose to speed, drink or scroll.”
The report makes little mention of possible changes to road design or transportation patterns that might indirectly encourage safer driving habits.
Driving under the influence
A big part of the report concerns driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
In 2022, the report noted, New Hampshire had 146 road fatalities and alcohol was a factor in 39% of them, while 71 operators tested positive for the presence of drugs. It says DUI arrests have risen slightly in recent years, going from 3,955 in 2022 to 4,220 in 2024.
New Hampshire drivers can lose their license for 180 days if they refuse to take a roadside sobriety test when suspected of being impaired. However, this loss can overlap with any loss of license following a DUI conviction, which has “significantly impacted the sting of any penalty” and helps explain New Hampshire’s high rate of people refusing blood-alcohol tests.
Only Florida has a higher rate of refusal, the report said.
It suggests “legislation to enhance the administrative penalty for refusal to consent to a BAC or other roadside test when a driver is lawfully stopped and suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
The report makes a number of other suggestions related to DUI, many of them enforcement-related, including increased penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, police use of Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, better availability of prosecutors and more training for judges and court clerks on DUI laws and procedures.
The report also recommends ways for bars and restaurants to encourage “responsible alcohol consumption” among customers who are driving.
Seat belts
Half of all road fatalities in New Hampshire happen to “unrestrained occupants,” or people not wearing seat belts, according to the report. A survey of drivers indicate that about three-quarters of people wear seat belts, the report said.
It recommends continuing and expanding public-education programs to inform people about the safety value of seat belts. It does not discuss whether New Hampshire’s lack of mandatory seat-belt laws for adults should be changed.
Road design
As for improvements in road design to shape driving habits, the report’s only mention concerns wrong-way drivers, who have been responsible for several high-profile fatal accidents on divided interstates and turnpikes in recent years.
The report says the state Department of Transportation should “implement countermeasures consistent with best practices for road design to reduce wrong-way driving on divided highways and arterial roads,” including “retroreflective strips of signposts, flashing light-emitting diode (LED) borders or flashing beacons” to make signage more conspicuous.
And technology might help, it says: It recommends the state “research and explore advanced technologies to detect and prevent wrong-way driving.”
It makes no mention of other types of road-design changes that are often cited to improve safety, such as ending “slip lanes,” which let drivers take an easy right turn at a stoplight but are disproportionally involved in pedestrian deaths, or narrowing lanes to encourage lower speeds, since wider and straighter roads make drivers feel comfortable when going faster.
The state has little or no say on the design of federal limited-access highways like I-89, I-93 and I-95, but it does oversee the turnpikes and state highways, within certain constraints.
Other topics raised in the report include:
Speeding
The report notes that speeding is a leading cause in traffic deaths, directly implicated in 56 deaths in 2022. The problem may be getting worse: The number of times New Hampshire state police aircraft have clocked vehicles going more than 100 miles an hour has more than tripled from 2018 to 2024, the report said.
It suggests increasing penalties related to speeding and more targeted enforcement of the issue.
It does not mention one possibility that is increasingly raised in discussion about road safety: requiring people with multiple speeding tickets to have limiters installed to prevent their vehicles from going above a certain speed.
Distracted driving
A major factor often cited in increased traffic fatalities is distracted driving, including the use of cell phones and touch-screen controls inside vehicles. The report has few specific suggestions on this topic beyond ensuring police are “trained to ask questions during crashes regarding distracted driving” to help get a sense of the extent of the problem.
This section of the report also includes advice to enforce RSA 265:16, which tells people to drive on the right side of a highway and stay out of the so-called high-speed lane when possible. This will “curb improper left-lane use, which sometimes creates safety hazards on our highways,” it says.
Dangerous vehicles
The report emphasizes that even though the state legislature has ended annual car inspections after this coming January, “several laws, statutes and rules empower law enforcement to ensure vehicles on New Hampshire roads are in safe condition.”
“Police can still stop and cite drivers for operating unsafe or defective vehicles,” the report notes, adding that “Police Standards and Training should review its current curriculum to ensure a focus on enforcing unsafe equipment violations based on recent repeal of the motor vehicle inspection law.”
