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Automotive Deaths in NH Down

Sources: NH Department of Safety, NH State Police
Sources: NH Department of Safety, NH State Police

 

The number of fatal crashes on New Hampshire roads dropped in 2011 by nearly a third.

The coordinator of the Highway Safety Agency, Peter Thomson, says that the state police are targeting factors that cause fatal crashes: speed, distracted driving, and drugs and alcohol.

He says so far this year, eighty-seven people have died in crashes, which is the lowest number in fifty years.

He credits, among other things, the safe commute program which the state police instituted this year.

Thomson: What it is is that once a month, every single state-police person, including the administration, and the colonel himself, get out on the road for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening.

The state police say New Hampshire seems to be ahead of the curve, as fatal accidents are down by just 12% nationally.

That said they note that they can’t be sure which of their efforts is leading to fewer deaths, but hope to have analyzed the numbers by mid January.

 

 

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.

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