A fatal boating crash in the summer of 2002, and a collision between a snowmobile and dogsled that left the musher critically injured last winter, have inspired an Antrim legislator to push for changes to the state's laws regarding conduct after an accident.

State Sen. Robert B. Flanders has submitted Legislative Service Requests for two measures to specify penalties for leaving the scene of an accident; one addresses crashes involving boats, the other off-highway recreational vehicles, which include snow machines.

The two-term Republican said the change in the state's boating law would fix a loophole in existing statutes that arose in the case of a fatal boating collision in Meredith Bay on Aug. 11, 2002. Jack Hartman, 69, was crushed to death when his boat was struck by another boat, operated by Daniel J. Littlefield of Meredith.

A Belknap County jury last June convicted Littlefield of negligent homicide for not keeping a proper lookout at the time of the crash, but acquitted him of a second, more serious, negligent homicide charge that alleged he was impaired by alcohol that night.

Littlefield has appealed his conviction to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

The trial judge noted at Littlefield's sentencing hearing that he would have been charged with an additional offense of conduct after an accident for leaving the scene, had he been operating a car instead of a boat that evening.

That's what Flanders is hoping to fix with his proposed Senate measure. His bill would make leaving the scene of a boating accident a misdemeanor if there is only property damage, but a Class B felony if there is injury or death resulting.

Flanders also wants to make sure the state's OHRV laws include similar language. He said the state was "lucky" to get a conviction in the case of a Berlin man who struck a dogsled musher with his snowmobile and then left the man lying in the snow, severely injured in sub-zero temperatures.

Earlier this month, the snowmobile driver, Denis Lancey, 30, agreed to a plea bargain that will send him to county jail for a year. He had been charged with a felony count of conduct after an accident for not reporting that he had struck Stephen Hessert of Cumberland, Maine, last February 15.

The Coos County Attorney's office, which was prosecuting the case, said Hessert did not object to the plea deal.

Sen. Flanders, who owns a snow machine and a four-wheeler, said the two legislative proposals were motivated by his concern for public safety. "If you save a life with them, then you've accomplished a great day's work," he said.