Granite State Times

New Hampshire roads recently received a “red” rating for danger by a national highway and auto safety group.

According to the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (AHAS), 101 people died in crashes on New Hampshire roads in 2019, and 1,156 were killed between 2010 and 2019. The economic devastation is also massive, with an estimated $1.659 billion cost annually.

The Granite State is following a tragic national trend, according to AHAS, which released its 19th annual edition of the Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws in January. The report calls on the U.S. Department of Transportation and state governments to put the brakes on dangerous driving across the country.

“During the first six months of 2021, more than 20,000 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes, the most during this time period since 2006,” the report states. “This represents a nearly 20% increase in deaths over the same period in 2020 and is the largest such spike ever recorded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System.”

The report gives every state a rating based on five categories of occupant protection, child passenger safety, teen driving, impaired driving and distracted driving. It also provides an overall grade of green, yellow or red on how each state is doing in terms of enacting the recommended 16 laws.

New Hampshire joins 10 other states, including Missouri, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia and South Dakota, to receive the lowest rating of red.

Seven states, Rhode Island, Washington, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, California and Louisiana, received green, the highest score, while 31 states received yellow ratings.

On average, 100 people die every day on U.S. roads. The AHAS recommends 16 optimal laws for states to adopt to make roads safer. The report details ways to increase occupant protection, child passenger safety, assist novice teen and young adult drivers, and reduce impaired and distracted driving.

The New Hampshire Driving Toward Zero campaign aims to cut the number of fatal crashes in half by 2030.

“Eliminating fatalities on New Hampshire roadways is an important vision and the driving force behind this plan and the coalition that united in its development,” the New Hampshire Office of Highway Safety reports. “It is also an important vision for the public, all of whom travel New Hampshire’s roadways — by car, motorcycle, truck, bicycle, or even on foot — day and night under all types of weather conditions.”

The New Hampshire Driving Toward Zero's mission is "to create a safety culture where even one death is too many, through a collaborative effort of both public and private entities, as well as the implementation of education, enforcement, engineering and emergency management solutions.”

The goal of the organization is "to reduce the number of fatal and severe injury crashes on New Hampshire roadways to ZERO. Though our overall goal is to reach zero fatalities, we have set a plan goal of reducing the number of fatalities and severe injuries by 50% by the year 2030.”

Action is needed now to stem the tide of roadway deaths, according to AHAS President Cathy Chase, and the fact that people are not aware of the rising death toll is more reason to move quickly on the problem.

“The new public opinion poll we commissioned found that nearly 75% were not aware of the drastic jump in traffic fatalities during the first six months of 2021," Chase told US DOT Newswire. "Still 66% of respondents said not enough is being done to address dangerous roadway behaviors. These findings emphasize the need for progress on traffic safety laws at the state level and swift action at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to implement the safety provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The IIJA took essential steps forward for vehicle safety that the DOT should consider as a ‘floor’ for what must be achieved, not a ‘ceiling.’ We have proven solutions at hand. We need our nation’s leaders to step up and implement them with urgency.”

AHAS, founded in 1989, is an alliance of public health, safety, consumer and law enforcement organizations, insurers and insurance agents that promotes highway and auto safety through the adoption of safety laws, policies and regulations.