Texting and distracted driving laws in New Hampshire

If a distracted driver just hit you in New Hampshire, the rules that decide what happens next are set by state statute, and several of them are specific enough that a general explainer won't tell you what actually applies to your case. This page sticks to the New Hampshire specifics: the exact law the other driver likely broke, the fine schedule, the deadline to file, how shared fault is handled, and the coverage that pays your bills.

New Hampshire's hands-free law

New Hampshire bans holding a phone or other mobile electronic device while driving under RSA 265:79-c, which took effect July 1, 2015.¹ The statute reaches reading or composing texts and emails, making or taking handheld calls, browsing the internet, and entering GPS data by hand. Holding a phone up to your ear while the car is moving creates a legal presumption that you were using it in violation of the law.¹

This is a primary enforcement law. A New Hampshire officer can stop a driver for the phone alone, without any other traffic violation.² That matters after a crash, because the responding officer can cite the at-fault driver for the device use itself, and that citation lands in the crash report.

The law is not a total ban on technology in the car. Hands-free operation is allowed, meaning voice commands or a single tap or swipe to activate a device.¹ Navigation is fine when the directions come through an integrated or mounted system, whether you hear them or glance at a mounted screen.¹ The remaining carve-outs are narrow:

• Calling 911 or a public safety agency to report a genuine emergency
• One-handed use of a non-cellular two-way radio
• Operating an ignition interlock device

For a driver under 18, the rule is stricter. Anyone under 18 is barred from using a cell phone or mobile device at all while driving, even in hands-free mode, and the only exception is a call to report an emergency.¹ A young driver who breaks that rule faces license suspension or revocation on top of the fine.¹

What a ticket costs

The fines under RSA 265:79-c climb with each offense: $100 for a first violation, $250 for a second, and $500 for a third or later violation within a 24-month period, each plus the state penalty assessment.¹ These amounts are set by statute, so a court cannot bargain them down the way it might with some other traffic fines.

A conviction matters to your claim, too. A ticket under 265:79-c is documented evidence that the other driver broke a safety statute at the moment of the crash, which supports the argument that they breached the standard of care they owed you. It doesn't decide your case by itself, but paired with the crash report and any phone records, it's some of the most useful proof you can have.

How New Hampshire splits fault

New Hampshire is an at-fault state that follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar, set out in RSA 507:7-d.³ You can still recover as long as your share of the fault is "not greater than" the other driver's, which in practice means you're shut out once your responsibility passes 50 percent.³ Whatever percentage of blame is assigned to you is then subtracted from your award. If a jury values your damages at $100,000 and finds you 20 percent at fault, you collect $80,000.

This is where distracted-driving cases get fought. An insurer defending a driver who was on the phone will often try to push a slice of the blame onto you, because every point it moves off its driver reduces the payout, and 51 points erases the claim entirely. Locking down the phone-use evidence early is how you hold that line.

The deadline to file

You generally have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in New Hampshire under RSA 508:4.⁴ That same three-year window covers the property damage claim for your vehicle.⁴ There is a discovery rule for injuries that weren't apparent right away: if you couldn't reasonably have known about an injury and its link to the crash, the clock can run from when you discover it instead.⁴ That exception is narrower than people assume, so treat three years from the crash date as the real deadline. Miss it and the claim is gone, no matter how clear the other driver's fault was.

The coverage that actually pays

New Hampshire's mandatory minimum liability limits are low. A policy has to carry at least $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage under RSA 264:20.⁵ Serious injuries pass $25,000 fast, which is why the other coverages matter.

Every private passenger policy issued or renewed in the state must include at least $1,000 per person in medical payments coverage under RSA 264:16.⁶ MedPay applies no matter who was at fault and covers costs incurred within three years of the crash, and those benefits are generally not subject to your insurer's subrogation under RSA 264:17.⁶ It's a modest cushion, but it's money you can use for early bills without waiting on the fault fight.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is the piece drivers forget until they need it. New Hampshire insurers have to include UM/UIM equal to your own liability limits unless you rejected it in writing, and a written rejection by the named insured binds every vehicle and driver on the policy until it's revoked in writing.⁷ If the distracted driver who hit you carried only the state minimum or nothing at all, your own UM/UIM is often what stands between you and an unpaid bill.

One thing New Hampshire does not offer is punitive damages. RSA 507:16 bars them unless another statute specifically allows them, and no distracted-driving or drunk-driving exception exists.⁸ Even against a driver who was texting, your recovery is built from your actual losses, not a separate punishment award.

The numbers behind the law

Distraction is not a small problem on the road. NHTSA counted 3,275 people killed and an estimated 324,819 injured in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2023, and distraction was reported in 8 percent of all fatal crashes that year.⁹ The rate was highest among the youngest drivers, which is part of why New Hampshire wrote the total device ban for teens.⁹

Closer to home, 130 people died on New Hampshire roads in 2023 out of roughly 29,650 reported crashes, an 11 percent drop in fatalities from the year before.¹⁰¹¹ The New Hampshire Office of Highway Safety continues to name distracted driving among the leading factors it targets with enforcement and education.¹²

If you were hit by a distracted driver

Get the crash documented and pull your own copy of the New Hampshire crash report, where the officer's notes on the other driver's phone use will appear. If your car is worth less even after a solid repair, that's a separate diminished value claim in New Hampshire worth pursuing alongside your injury claim. And because the fault percentage and the coverage stack decide most of what you actually recover, it's worth talking to a New Hampshire attorney before you give a recorded statement or accept a first offer.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated § 265:79-c, Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Driving. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/265/265-79-c.htm

2. New Hampshire Judicial Branch Law Library, Hands-Free Law (RSA 265:79-c). https://courts-state-nh-us.libguides.com/handsfree

3. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated § 507:7-d, Comparative Fault. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/507/507-7-d.htm

4. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated § 508:4, Personal Actions. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/508/508-4.htm

5. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated § 264:20, Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-20.htm

6. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated §§ 264:16 and 264:17, Medical Payments Coverage. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-16.htm

7. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated § 264:15, Uninsured Motorist Coverage. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-15.htm

8. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated § 507:16, Punitive Damages. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/507/507-16.htm

9. NHTSA, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, Distracted Driving in 2023 (Research Note DOT HS 813 703). https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813703

10. New Hampshire Office of Highway Safety, Annual Report 2023. https://www.highwaysafety.dos.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt1001/files/documents/annual-report-2023.pdf

11. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Fatality Facts 2023: State by State (New Hampshire). https://www.iihs.org/research-areas/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state

12. New Hampshire Office of Highway Safety, Distracted Driving. https://www.highwaysafety.dos.nh.gov/safety-programs-tips/distracted-driving