Bill Text: NH HB372 | 2019 | Regular Session | Enrolled

New Hampshire House Bill 372 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Relative to motorist duties when approaching highway emergencies.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-05-13 - Signed by Governor Sununu 05/10/2019; Chapter 11; Eff: 07/09/2019 [HB372 Detail]

Download: New_Hampshire-2019-HB372-Enrolled.html

HB 372-FN - VERSION ADOPTED BY BOTH BODIES

2019 SESSION

19-0227

11/10

HOUSE BILL 372-FN

AN ACT relative to motorist duties when approaching highway emergencies.

SPONSORS: Rep. Flanagan, Hills. 26

COMMITTEE: Transportation

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ANALYSIS

This bill requires that motorists give a wide berth to all vehicles, rather than stationary vehicles, that are displaying blue, red, or amber emergency or warning lights.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

19-0227

11/10

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nineteen

AN ACT relative to motorist duties when approaching highway emergencies.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Motor Vehicles; Rules of the Road; Motorist Duties When Approaching Highway Emergencies. Amend RSA 265:37-a, I(d) to read as follows:

(d) 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.

2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.

LBAO

19-0227

12/28/18

HB 372-FN- FISCAL NOTE

AS INTRODUCED

AN ACT relative to motorist duties when approaching highway emergencies.

FISCAL IMPACT: [ X ] State [ ] County [ X ] Local [ ] None


	Estimated Increase / (Decrease)
STATE:	FY 2020	FY 2021	FY 2022	FY 2023
Appropriation	$0	$0	$0	$0
Revenue	Indeterminable	Indeterminable	Indeterminable	Indeterminable
Expenditures	$0	Indeterminable	Indeterminable	Indeterminable
Funding Source:	[ X ] General [ ] Education [ X ] Highway [ X ] Other - Restricted Plea-By-Mail Revenue, Victims' Assistance Fund, Judical Branch IT Fund

LOCAL:
Revenue	$0	Indeterminable	Indeterminable	Indeterminable
Expenditures	$0	$0	$0	$0

METHODOLOGY:

This bill expands the requirement that motorists give a wide berth to all vehicles, rather than only stationary vehicles, displaying blue, red, or amber emergency or warning lights on roadways. To the extent this bill may result in increased violations, state revenue and expenditures may increase by an indeterminable amount in FY 2020 and each year thereafter. Fine revenue collected by the courts is credited to the highway fund and fine revenue collected by the Department of Safety (plea-by-mail) is credited as agency income to the department. All fines are also subject to a penalty assessment (the greater of 24% of the fine amount or $2), for which the proceeds split and are credited to the general fund (66.66%), victims’ assistance fund (16.67%), and the judicial branch information technology fund (16.67%). Also, pursuant to RSA 235:23, not less than 12 percent of the total motor vehicle fee revenue collected in the previous year is distributed to municipalities as highway block grants. Therefore, this bill may result in an indeterminable increase in state highway fund expenditures and local revenue in FY 2021 and each year thereafter.

This bill contains penalties that may have an impact of the New Hampshire Judicial Branch. There is no method to determine how many charges may be brought as a result of changes contained in this bill to determine the fiscal impact on Branch expenditures. However, any marginal increase or decrease in violations due to this bill would impact the expenditures of the Branch as follows:

Judicial Branch	FY 2020	FY 2021
Violation Level Offense	$51	$52
It should be noted that average case cost estimates for FY 2020 and FY 2021 are based on data that is more than ten years old and does not reflect changes to the courts over that same period of time or the impact these changes may have on processing the various case types.