A bill proposed by a legislator and longtime friend of a woman killed in an accident in Lyndeborough last year would suspend licenses for youth motorists involved in serious accidents.
Hillsborough District 4 representative Carol Roberts (D-Wilton) co-sponsored House Bill 364 after her friend, Debess Rogers, was allegedly struck by a vehicle driven by a then-17-year-old driver, Grace Wight, who is facing felony charges including negligent homicide for her role in the crash. The victim’s family and Wight both live on Mountain Road in Lyndeborough.
“The reason I wanted to pass the bill was because it oddly happens that the teenage driver lives on the same street as Debess, and her family and they would see her driving around all the time and it was just really painful,” Roberts said. “We couldn’t figure out why she was driving if she was driving a vehicle that hit and killed somebody.”
Wight, who is now 18, is scheduled for a pre-trial conference Oct. 11 and jury selection for the trial is set for Oct. 23, according to Alex Yiokarinas, an assistant county attorney. Wight was charged with negligent homicide and reckless conduct with a deadly weapon (both felonies) in the crash. She is also facing a misdemeanor charge for vehicular assault. She pleaded innocent to the charges.
Wight was indicted Feb. 17 – about six months after the July 15 accident.
Roberts says that due to “a loophole” in state law, Wight was still driving between the accident and the indictment. H.B. 364 amends RSA 263:14, which deals with driver’s license conditions. The bill would allow the director of the division of motor vehicles of the state department of safety to suspend (up to six months) or revoke a license for a youth operator (drivers aged 16 to 21) while that person was involved in an accident that resulted in death or serious bodily injury – provided the operator violated restrictions in the law, such as driving from 1 to 4 a.m.
“This closes a loophole that had tied the hands of law enforcement,” Roberts said.
The law would go into effect 60 days after the governor signs it, though it would not affect Wight, who was required to surrender her driver’s license and not operate a vehicle as of March 17, according to a bail order on file with the Hillsborough County Superior Court. She was also issued an 11 p.m. curfew unless her parents were with her.
This is one of two bills proposed by Roberts, who is in the first year of her second term.
“I just felt like this would be a good thing to do,” Roberts said. “I was just thinking also, what does that do to your head? If you’re driving a car, driving a vehicle and you hit and killed someone and you go on driving as if – I know it has to have affected her.”
Roberts was good friends with Rogers since 1990, when they met as co-workers at Digital Equipment Corp. and they shared similar taste in music, attending Grateful Dead concerts together.
Wight directed questions about the accident and the bill to her lawyer, Jim Rosenberg.
“Since the day of the accident, Grace’s heart has gone out to the victim involved,” Rosenberg said.
As class president of Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative High School, Wight gave a speech at the June 9 graduation ceremony.
“I want to thank all of the coaches for pushing us to be the best versions of ourselves and pushing us to succeed, and for picking us up when we fall, especially when we fall three times in one week after we tear our ACL,” she said in her speech.