This story was originally produced by The Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
A New Hampshire law requiring motorists to reduce speed and steer a wide berth around a variety of roadside emergencies would be expanded under a bill the state Senate passed Thursday.
State law already requires drivers to move over when practical and safe for fires, collisions, disasters, utility construction or maintenance, highway blockages or police traffic stops.
Sen. Donovan Fenton’s Senate Bill 273 would add this requirement in situations where a stopped vehicle has its flashers on or where there are other warning signals such as road flares or traffic cones.
The bipartisan measure is named after Jesse Sherrill, the 44-year-old State Police staff sergeant who was killed when a tractor-trailer hit his cruiser at a highway project on Interstate 95 in Portsmouth on Oct. 28, 2021.
A Connecticut man was sentenced to a year in prison on a negligent homicide charge in that case. Prosecutors said in an indictment that he “failed to move over to the next lane, despite passing at least two advance warning signs and observing multiple warning/emergency lights.”
State Police put out a news release on Thursday, lauding Senate passage of the bill.
“SB 273 will protect the lives and safety of first responders. It is only fitting that it should carry Staff Sgt. Sherrill’s name, as his legacy stays with us, now and forever,” State Police Col. Mark Hall said in the release.
“We urge everyone to prioritize safety by paying attention, slowing down, and moving over for those working or stopped on the side of our roads.”
Fenton, D-Keene, read a proclamation to the Senate Thursday honoring Sherrill’s service and presented it to Sherrill’s wife, Nicolle, who has two children, Peyton and Quinn.
“The N.H. Senate extends our deepest gratitude to Staff Sgt. Jesse Sherrill to the life of his service to this state and further extends our deepest sympathies to Nicolle, Peyton and Quinn for their loss,” Fenton said.
In an interview Friday, Fenton also said that last summer, Brig. Gen. John Pogorek, commander of the N.H. Air National Guard, was killed when he was struck by a vehicle while he was securing a load of hay on his trailer along a roadside near his home in Rochester.
A Rochester resident is scheduled to go on trial this fall in Strafford County Superior Court on criminal charges in that case, including negligent homicide.
State Police Lt. Chris Storm testified in favor of SB 273 in a meeting of the N.H. Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 11. He said it was a common-sense measure aimed at creating safer roadways.
Dan Goodman, manager of public affairs for AAA Northern New England, also testified, saying it would reduce traffic accidents and fatalities. He said that last year, 350 people across the country, including 23 construction workers, were struck and killed while on roadsides.
Nobody testified against the bill in the committee hearing. Nobody spoke against it Thursday, and there was no opposition when the Senate passed it in a voice vote.
The N.H. House will eventually consider the bill. Fenton sponsored a similar measure last year, which passed the Senate but stalled in the House.
