NH Cops to Motorists: Slow Down in Construction Zones

Oct. 28--New Hampshire state troopers have two words of advice for motorists cruising through construction zones at high rates of speed: Slow down.

"Reduced rates of speed through work zones are enforceable rates of speed," said New Hampshire State Police Capt. John LeLacheur. "And they are enforced."

Unless slowed by heavy traffic, many drivers entering New Hampshire along Interstate 93 north routinely speed through a construction zone there, apparently ignoring an overhead sign declaring the limit is 55 mph. On a recent drive through that portion of Salem and Windham, a reporter with his car's cruise control set at 55 mph was passed by many motorists, some of whom shot glares or unfriendly gestures in his direction.

LeLacheur said state troopers are not ignoring the issue.

"If the lower speed limits are posted in black and white signs, they are enforceable," said LeLacheur. "If they are in orange, they are an advisory, but the black and white postings, they are set by the Department of Transportation and enforceable by state police."

The number of speeding tickets and warnings issued by state police so far this year support assertions that authorities are enforcing speed limits.

Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 21, state police issued 6,394 speeding tickets and 8,375 warnings statewide in 55 mph zones and 2,968 tickets and 13,610 warnings statewide in speed zones below 55 mph, according to statistics provided by LeLacheur. In zones where the posted limit was 65 mph, police issued 18,458 tickets and 16,632 warnings. New Hampshire employs just shy of 400 state police officers.

"Those are in line with previous years," said LeLacheur.

In fiscal 2010, New Hampshire state police stopped 162,581 cars, and 46,299 of those stops generated court summonses. Those numbers represent a reduction from 2009, when they performed 177,997 vehicle stops, and issued 52,704 summonses.

Officers monitoring work zones will not always go after speeders. NHDOT work zone guidelines state, "Uniform officers being used for presence should typically not be used for enforcement except for flagrant violations of traffic law."

"In some cases, an officer in a cruiser is placed there to alert drivers to work going on along the road," said LeLacheur. "If the cruiser leaves to pull someone over a mile or two down the road, those workers are exposed while its gone. The safety issue is a factor there."

Safety is also behind the state's "Move Over" law, which requires motorists approaching a police traffic stop to move to another lane if possible when they see the cruiser's flashing lights. Drivers don't always comply.

On Aug. 10, a state police cruiser was rear-ended by a car on Interstate 89 in Grantham, the trooper was outside the cruiser inspecting an abandoned vehicle.

Over the summer, one of the state's Department of Transportation survey trucks was hit by a car while parked on the shoulder of the Laconia Bypass, not far from a survey crew working in the area. In both cases, the law enforcement vehicles had their emergency lights flashing and the drivers of the cars that struck the parked state vehicles were injured.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) shows two fatal accidents occurring on New Hampshire roadways in work and construction zones in 2008, but none in 2009, the most recent years for which data were available.

According to state law (265:37-a): "When in or approaching an incident involving a fire, collision, disaster or other emergency resulting in partial or complete blockage of a highway, or a location where a police officer has made a traffic stop, every driver other than the driver of an emergency response vehicle shall maintain a reduced speed; obey the directions of any authorized person directing traffic and of all applicable emergency signals and traffic control devices; vacate as soon as possible any lane wholly or partially blocked; and give a wide berth, without endangering oncoming traffic, to public safety personnel, any persons in the roadway, and stationary vehicles displaying blue, red, or amber emergency or warning lights."

NHDOT guidelines written in 2009 state civilian flaggers can be used on roads with a posted speed limit under 45 mph or when fewer than 15,000 vehicles per day use the road.

Uniformed officers are used on high-speed roads, where workers are unprotected and in close proximity to high volumes of traffic for extended periods.

Some states have taken to using so-called "speed cameras'' to enforce limits. Speed cameras along highway work zones in Maryland have resulted in 767,697 citations being issued since the cameras were first used in September 2009, according to data from the Maryland State Highway Administration. With speeders being fined $40 for each infraction, the cameras have generated $30.7 million in revenue in three years.

AAA studies also show a 50 percent reduction in the number of drivers who travel 10 mph or more over the posted speed limit in those work zones in Maryland.

"Maryland's work zone speed cameras are having the desired effects: decreasing the number of speeders in highway construction zones in the region and across the state and reducing the number and the severity of crashes in the work zones," said AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend.

LeLacheur said similar cameras are not an option in New Hampshire at this time.

"They aren't legal here," said LeLacheur. "When the E-ZPass system was going in, legislators fought tooth and nail not to allow E-ZPasses or cameras to be used in speed enforcement efforts."

LeLacheur wouldn't comment on whether such cameras could be a useful tool curtail speeding.

"That's up to the Legislature to decide," he said.