NEW HAMPSHIRE:Records: NH trooper breaks law in cruiser crash

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http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20100713records_nh_trooper_breaks_law_in_cruiser_crash/srvc=home&position=recent Records: NH trooper breaks law in cruiser crash By Associated Press Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - Added 14 hours ago

CONCORD, N.H. — A State Police trooper whose cruiser was struck by a motorcycle in Rochester last year broke the law by not making sure it was safe to make a U-turn on the highway, according to an accident report written by one of her supervisors.

The report from Sgt. Daniel Berridge was among documents released Tuesday under a newly amended law providing public access to crash reports involving state-owned vehicles.

Though some of the details of the May 2009 crash were made public when Trooper Elizabeth Keyes appealed a warning letter she received to a state personnel board, a court in April rejected a request from the New Hampshire Union Leader for the accident report, saying doing so would violate the Driver Privacy Act.

Around the same time, another court rejected a similar request from the Portsmouth Herald, which sought accident reports from a Seabrook officer’s February crash in North Hampton. Lawmakers responded by changing the law to exempt crashes involving state vehicles from the privacy act. Gov. John Lynch signed the bill June 30, prompting The Associated Press and other media outlets to request the documents under the state right-to-know law. It was not clear from the documents released Tuesday whether the trooper faced any disciplinary action beyond the warning letter. In June, she withdrew her appeal of the letter.

In his report, Berridge said Keyes was acting in good faith when she did a U-turn on the Spaulding Turnpike but failed to make sure the vehicles behind her were at a safe distance.

"It is my belief that .... Keyes made an unsafe U-turn directly in front of a northbound motorcycle," he wrote.

According to the report, Keyes was driving north when she spotted a group of southbound motorcycles trying to get around the heavy Memorial Day weekend traffic by traveling in the breakdown lane. Dave LaRoche’s motorcycle and the police cruiser collided as the trooper was making a U-turn to head south.

LaRoche, of Rollinsford, was flown to Maine Medical Center with serious injuries. He told police he was going 55 mph when he saw Keyes’ cruiser slow down and stop ahead of him.

"As I got closer, at the last second the cruiser pulls out, crosses the lane, and comes to a stop in front of me, with the driver’s side facing me," he said, according to the accident report.

LaRoche said he hit the brakes, and then struck the cruiser.

"The next think I know I was on my side in a lot of pain. Somebody came over to me, and I’m hollering out, ’Oh my God, oh my God, why did she do this?’"

Neither Keyes nor LaRoche’s lawyer immediately returned calls for comment Tuesday.

Details of the North Hampton crash, which involved a Seabrook police officer who sped through a red light and crashed into a pickup truck and car, already were made public when someone leaked them to the Portsmouth Herald. Both cases prompted lawmakers to take a new look at the privacy law, and some are considering making further changes to allow public access to accident reports involving municipal- and county-owned vehicles as well.

Rep. Neal Kurk, R-Weare, who sponsored the original privacy law, has said it was meant to protect private citizens from having their motor vehicle records used by marketers, not to protect public officials driving public vehicles.