Bill Text: NH HB1360 | 2014 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relative to use of certain electronic devices while driving.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Passed) 2014-07-29 - Signed by the Governor on 7/25/2014; Chapter 0256; Section 1 Effective Date 7/1/2015; Remainder Effective 7/25/2014. [HB1360 Detail]
Download: New_Hampshire-2014-HB1360-Introduced.html
HB 1360 – AS INTRODUCED
2014 SESSION
03/01
HOUSE BILL 1360
AN ACT prohibiting impeded driving and use of certain electronic devices while driving.
SPONSORS: Rep. Pantelakos, Rock 25; Rep. Theberge, Coos 3; Rep. Burridge, Ches 16
This bill prohibits impeded driving and use of certain electronic devices while driving.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
14-2002
03/01
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Fourteen
AN ACT prohibiting impeded driving and use of certain electronic devices while driving.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Sections; Serious Traffic Offenses; Impeded Driving; Use of Mobile Electronic Devices. Amend RSA 265 by inserting after section 79-b the following new sections:
265:79-c Impeded Driving.
I. No person, when operating a motor vehicle, shall permit to be on or in the vehicle or on or about his or her person anything which is interfering with or impeding the proper operation of the vehicle or any equipment by which the vehicle is operated or controlled.
II. Any person who violates this section shall be guilty of a violation and shall be fined $100 plus penalty assessment for a first offense, $250 plus penalty assessment for a second offense, and $500 plus penalty assessment for any subsequent offense within a 24 month period.
265:79-d Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Driving; Prohibition.
I.(a) No person while driving a moving motor vehicle upon a way or temporarily halted in traffic for a traffic control device or other momentary delay, shall use any hand-held mobile electronic device, including but not limited to reading, composing or writing an email message or text message, initiating, receiving, or conducting a conversation, initiating a command or request to access the Internet, or inputting information into a global positioning system or navigation device.
(b) “Driving,” for the purposes of this section, shall not include when a person is behind the controls of a vehicle that has pulled to the side of or off the road at a location where it is legal to do so and where the vehicle remains stationary with the gear selector in park or neutral or the parking brake engaged, and no portion of the vehicle remains in the travel portion of the public way.
(c) “Mobile electronic device” shall mean any hand-held or other portable electronic equipment capable of providing data communication between 2 or more persons, including, without limitation, a mobile telephone, a text messaging device, a paging device, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, electronic equipment that is capable of playing a video game or digital video disk, equipment on which digital photographs are taken or transmitted, or any combination thereof, or equipment that is capable of visually receiving a television broadcast.
II. It shall not be an offense under this section for any person driving a motor vehicle upon a way:
(a) To make use of a cellular telephone or mobile radio telephone to report an emergency to the enhanced 911 system or directly to a law enforcement agency, fire department, or emergency medical provider.
(b) While driving a police car, fire truck, ambulance, or other public safety vehicle, taxicab, passenger bus, commercial truck, vehicle engaged in deliveries, or vehicle engaged in the maintenance of public ways, to transmit and receive brief voice messages over a mobile 2-way radio on a public safety or business frequency while in the course of business or in the line of duty.
(c) To use a Bluetooth enabled or other hands-free electronic device to send or receive information provided the driver does not have to divert his or her attention from the road ahead.
III. Any person who violates this section shall be guilty of a violation and shall be fined $100 plus penalty assessment for a first offense, $250 plus penalty assessment for a second offense, and $500 plus penalty assessment for any subsequent offense within a 24 month period.
IV. No person less than 18 years of age shall use a cellular or mobile telephone or other mobile electronic device, whether hands-free or not, while driving a motor vehicle in motion or temporarily stopped in traffic upon any way, except to report an emergency to the enhanced 911 system or any public safety agency. A person violating this paragraph shall be subject to the fines in paragraph III and license suspension or revocation under 263:14, III.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect on January 1, 2015.
