Considering speeding in New Hampshire? Think again.
A proposed law would turn the state’s major highways into “enhanced enforcement zones” where existing speeding penalties would increase by 50% for any driver traveling more than 15 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.
The law would include all five interstates, State Route 101 and the F.E. Everett and Spaulding turnpikes.
Steve Pearson, a Derry Republican sponsoring the bill, said he hopes increased enforcement will fix New Hampshire’s speeding problem. On Wednesday, Pearson said 17 cars sped past him — several traveling over 80 miles per hour — while he was on his way to the State House.
“We have a significant speed problem on our divided highways,” Pearson said. “We have the ability now to travel at speeds quite comfortably that we, in the past, really never entertained.”
Pearson said this would require putting more law enforcement on the roads, which he knows would cost more money. He suggested a specialized state fund could pay for itself with the revenue from speeding fines in these zones.
“If you simply don’t want to fund it, don’t speed,” Pearson said. “I’d love to see the fund have nothing in it because that would mean we have compliance to our roads here.”
Speeding ticket revenue is a major funding source for the state’s court system. Pearson said he doesn’t want to take too much away from that.
He also said he hopes the new law will help fund policing in the long run, noting Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s backing of law enforcement.
“The State Police have a lot of struggles right now in staffing levels, and they’re stretched extraordinarily thin,” Pearson said. Using this mechanism to “provide more opportunities for them is just part of an overwhelming goal of the administration to bring law enforcement back up to full strength.”
State Police Captain Matt Amatucci didn’t take a position on the bill. He did note that the past two years have seen 39% more summons issued for speeding offenses where a driver was traveling more than 15 miles per hour faster than a posted speed limit of 65 miles per hour. He also said speeding is often involved when people die in car crashes.
“The vast majority that we are seeing,” Amatucci said, “it’s impairment. It’s distracted driving. It’s speed-related.”
Lawmakers suggested using speed-tracking or other technology as well as raising the threshold for speeding up to 25 miles per hour over the speed limit. In some areas, that would mean people could drive up to 95 miles per hour before reaching the enhanced speeding threshold. Pearson said he thinks that’s too lenient.
“When you get above 15 over, you know you’re speeding,” Pearson said. “You know you’re exceeding what is reasonable.”
Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.
