Yes, the state launched a mobile phone app to distribute emergency alerts a little more than six months after legislators passed a law prohibiting drivers from using handheld mobile devices even to check weather, traffic and emergency alerts. Drivers may not check their phones for such information even while stopped at traffic lights.
Precisely this problem was predicted before Gov. Maggie Hassan signed the bill into law last July. Last April, we wrote in these pages, "It would even be illegal under this bill to use a traffic or emergency alert app to find your way out of a traffic jam."
The NH Alerts app is not exclusively for motorists. But the information it transmits would be useful for the traveling public, especially in winter. Under the new law, though, if an emergency ping comes to your phone while you are traveling, you may not check it at the next red light. You must pull off the road entirely.
We do not advocate that people check their phones while driving, only that the law not penalize people for checking a device while the car is not moving. That is a sensible policy. Under the new law, drivers -- while stopped -- may not even check the state Department of Transportation's traffic alerts. Legislators need to revise the law to allow motorists to check their devices while stopped.
©2015 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.)
