Emergency Lane Designation
(RSA 231:59-a)
A town may designate all or part of a Class VI road an “emergency lane.” The purpose for this statute is to permit a town, at its option, to help people get to their property and, more importantly from the town’s standpoint, to provide access for emergency vehicles. A washed-out road would be an example. “Such repair may include removal of brush, repair of washouts or culverts, or any other work deemed necessary to render such way passable by firefighting equipment and rescue or other emergency vehicles.”
An emergency lane designation generally is temporary, and does not mean the town assumes responsibility to repair and maintain the road into the future. “Utilization of this section shall be at the sole and unfettered discretion of a town and its officials, and no landowner or any other person shall be entitled to damages by virtue of the creation of emergency lanes, or the failure to create them, or the maintenance of them, or the failure to maintain them, and no person shall be deemed to have any right to rely on such maintenance.”
For more information, please contact Paul Alfano at (603) 226-1188 or paul@alfanolawoffice.com.