After spike in fatal crashes, NH announces ‘zero tolerance’ on I-95 during Thanksgiving

From Seabrook to Portsmouth, a “zero-tolerance zone” along the I-95 corridor will be enforced this holiday season by state police. The initiative is part of a state directive to reduce unsafe, distracted and impaired driving after a recent uptick in serious and sometimes fatal crashes. 

All drivers pulled over on I-95 in the Seacoast this holiday season, regardless of the reason for the stop, will receive a ticket as part of the state campaign, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced Tuesday in Concord. 

The state’s holiday season zero-tolerance policy on local stretches of the interstate comes in advance of Thanksgiving. Enforcement measures and increased state police patrols will begin Wednesday. 

“If you’re pulled over on I-95, you’re getting a ticket. That’s it,” Sununu said Tuesday.

Sununu and representatives of state police agencies from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire spoke to the spike in crashes each state has seen this year and the New England-wide police effort to make cross-border holiday season travel safer for all motorists. 

Fatal crashes increase during days around Thanksgiving

Five people have died in crashes on I-95 in New Hampshire this year, several of which occurred with at least one vehicle crossing the median into oncoming traffic. 

Three recent Seacoast I-95 crashes resulted in three deaths and serious injuries to multiple motorists and passengers, which prompted the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to begin planning to add median barriers to the “most critical sections” of I-95. The project is still in the design phase and cost estimates have not been released, but construction will start in the summer of 2025, a Department of Transportation spokesperson said previously. 

Since 2019, five people have been killed and nine more have been injured in all crashes on major New Hampshire roads during Thanksgiving week, with impairment playing a role in four of the crashes, state police reported. The agency defines the Thanksgiving period as the Wednesday through the Sunday during the holiday week.

From 2019 to 2023, 2,183 non-fatal crashes occurred on New Hampshire roads during the Thanksgiving holiday periods.

“This is a really important story. This isn’t sensational. People have been dying over the past few weeks at really alarming numbers,” Sununu said Tuesday. “The roads haven’t changed. The conditions haven’t necessarily changed. We’ve actually had pretty good weather, other than today, but pretty good weather out there. It’s all about driver behavior.”

The night before Thanksgiving has come to be called “Drinksgiving” and “Blackout Wednesday,” according to New Hampshire State Police spokesperson Tyler Dumont, as crowds descend upon hometown bars and drinking establishments in the hours leading up to the holiday. 

“We are particularly concerned this year given the recent troubling trends on our roads across the state,” Dumont said.

2024 fatal crashes in NH on track to far exceed 2023

For the year to date, 127 people have died on major New Hampshire roads in fatal car crashes, according to state police Lt. Christopher Storm. That ties the entire death count from all 2023 crashes in New Hampshire, with over a month to go before the new year and without poor weather conditions having fully set in yet.

State police conducted a saturation patrol on I-95 on Wednesday, Nov. 20, with over 200 cars being pulled over. Hours after the patrol period ended, a 26-year-old Merrimack resident was sent to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after a series of multiple-vehicle crashes on I-95 in Greenland.

“Drivers, take note. If you are excessively speeding, driving recklessly or impaired on our roads, you will face consequences,” Storm said Tuesday. “Just a moment of carelessness can have lifelong repercussions for everybody involved.”

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation has recently installed 276 reflective markers around the area of the recent Seacoast I-95 serious and fatal crashes. The department is partnering with the state Department of Safety on safety messaging for drivers, with electronic billboards telling drivers to slow down, remain sober and stay alert during their travel.

Between 2018 and 2022, per data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 500 drivers in the United States were involved in fatal crashes on Thanksgiving Eve, Dumont said Tuesday.

On Thanksgiving Day 2022, Drew Ceppetelli, a 21-year-old Barrington resident and student-athlete at Salve Regina University, was killed in a single-vehicle crash at the Portsmouth traffic circle. All six passengers in that speeding vehicle were transported to local hospitals after the driver lost control, skidded across the roadway, flipped several times and occupants were ejected from the car. 

Northwood resident Tyler Troy, the impaired driver at the wheel during the incident, recently pleaded guilty to negligent homicide while under the influence and four other charges, resulting in a minimum six-year state prison sentence. 

In 2024, 10 motor vehicle operators under the age of 21 have been killed in crashes on New Hampshire’s major roadways, up from three deaths among the same demographic this time last year, according to state police data. 

For all of 2022, a total of 146 people died on New Hampshire roads in fatal motor vehicle accidents, according to state police data.

Law enforcement officials from the four New England states on Tuesday urged drivers to buckle up, stay sober, remain awake while traveling, put down phones and handheld devices while driving, and to report unsafe and distracted drivers they view on the road. 

Anyone planning to drink this holiday week, and in the future should always utilize a designated driver to get home afterward, the speakers in Concord said. Doing so could save lives.

“The ‘zero-tolerance’ policy that I’m really driving into effect over the holiday season is to bring some awareness, to make people wake up. (It’s) to make people realize, ‘Holy cow, this is real. It could be me, my kid, my neighbor, my dad.’ It could be anybody out there. It’s an absolute zero-tolerance policy on the I-95 corridor, where we’ve just had over the past few weeks an inordinate number of unnecessary crossings, specifically into the median,” Sununu said.

New Hampshire State Police expect to increase their presence on state roads the entirety of this week with between 50 to 100 patrols, according to Storm.