By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
PORTSMOUTH – Two fatal crashes have been reported in as many days on state roads after a year that saw markedly increased deaths among those under the age of 21.
While neither of these accidents are related to speeds above 100 miles per hour, they come just as New Hampshire state Senator Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, introduced Senate Bill 41-FN related to enhanced penalties for speeding.
“Last year, we lost more than 100 people on our roads, with speed contributing to one third of traffic deaths. Reckless drivers don’t just put themselves at risk. They endanger every Granite Starter on our highways. Anyone driving more than 100 miles per hour should face a stiff penalty, including loss of license.
“I hope that increasing these penalties will make reckless drivers think twice and slow down. If not, we need to get them off our roads,” Birdsell said.
The bill increases the penalties for anyone driving over 100 miles per hour to no less than a $750 fine for the first penalty and $1,000 plus penalty assessment for each subsequent offense.
It suspends the driver’s license for 90 days for the first offense and from 90 days to one year for any subsequent offense.
Route 95 has been the site of a number of high speed crashes though the one this week involved a vehicle that was stopped in the middle of the road.
A section of Interstate 95 was closed Monday evening following the three-vehicle crash.
At 6:41 p.m. state troopers responded to a report of a smoking vehicle stopped in the middle lane of I-95 southbound near mile marker 13 in Portsmouth and found three people injured.
Despite lifesaving efforts, Martin Osier, 62, of Bremen, Maine was pronounced deceased at the hospital. The preliminary investigation determined Osier had been traveling south along I-95 near Exit 7 when his 2010 Toyota Camry drifted onto the left shoulder and sideswiped a cement barrier, before continuing south with at least one tire partially deflated.
Approximately two miles south of the initial crash – for reasons that remain under investigation – Osier’s vehicle stopped in the travel lanes of the interstate.
Moments later, a 2008 Subaru Legacy driven by Courtney Ramer, 31, of Dover, rear-ended Osier’s Toyota, pushing the vehicle into an adjacent lane of travel at which time it was struck from the rear a second time by a 2021 Dodge Durango, operated by Colleen Leonard, 56, of Hanson, Mass.
As a result of the second crash, the Toyota was disabled in the travel portion of the interstate while the Subaru and the Dodge came to rest on the left shoulder near the center median.
The women were treated for injuries believed to be minor.
The accident happened fewer than 24 hours after another fatal in Andover late Sunday night, when a 17-year-old driver crashed into a drainage ditch, the truck flipped, submerged and he died.
Wyatt Carleton of Andover was driving a truck which appears to have slid on the ice and was fully submerged upside down in water following a crash at 11:53 p.m. on Currier Road.
Members of the East Andover Fire Department responded to the scene along with State Police and removed the body of Carleton, who was the lone occupant.
Troopers determined the truck, a 2010 Gray Nissan Frontier pickup, was traveling west on Currier Road when, for reasons that remain under investigation, the vehicle veered off the road to the left as it was crossing over a culvert. The vehicle flipped over the edge of the road and landed in the drainage ditch, coming to rest on its roof.
The initial investigation revealed the vehicle appeared to have drifted on the ice-covered road a few hundred feet before it went off into the drainage ditch.
The road was closed for approximately three hours during the investigation and the probe is ongoing.
In both cases, state police are asking for any information in the two fatal crashes.
The deaths follow a particularly hard year for teen fatalities in New Hampshire which ended up with 10 people under the age of 21 losing their lives, compared to 3 such deaths in 2023.
The Department of Safety weekly fatal accident statistics for 2024 show there were 121 fatal accidents in 2024 compared with 119 in 2023.
Persons killed in those accidents in 2024 were 135 compared with 127 in 2023.
New Hampshire does not have a seat belt law nor does it require motorcyclists to wear helmets.
Unbelted fatal crash victims numbered 39 last year.
The statistics show there were fewer motorcycle operator deaths in 2024, however; 31 compared to 37 in 2023 and almost about the same number of motorcycle passenger deaths.
There were no child pedestrian deaths in 2024.
Among some of the reasons for deaths officials also point to inattention, impairment and weather among others, but Birdsell’s bill will focus on excessive speed.
