Group Ride With Minors, Passengers, and Lane Filtering
Four riders leave a diner at 8:15 p.m. in June. Riders A and B are adults on 600 cc bikes; Rider C is 17 on a 250 cc bike; Rider D is 20 on a 900 cc bike with a 16-year-old passenger. A and B ride side by side in one lane at 40 mph. C wears a novelty skull cap that is not DOT-approved; D’s passenger wears no helmet and sits on a seat with no footrests. D has a tinted face shield but no windshield; A has no eye protection and no windshield. At a red light, C filters between cars to the front. A police officer observes. They ask which of these choices are legal in New Hampshire.
1. Which riders are violating NH helmet or eye-protection rules?
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C is 17 and must wear a DOT-approved motorcycle helmet; a novelty skull cap does not satisfy that requirement. D’s passenger is 16 and also must wear a helmet, so riding with no helmet is a violation. A, an adult operator with no eye protection and no windshield, violates the eye-protection requirement. D has a face shield, which can satisfy eye protection if it is approved and appropriate; at 8:15 p.m. in June it is still daylight, but a tinted shield at night would raise a separate visibility concern.
2. Are A and B legal riding side by side? Is C’s filtering legal?
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NH permits two motorcycles to ride abreast in a single lane, so A and B are not automatically illegal just because they are side by side; they must still stay within the lane and ride safely. Three abreast would not be allowed. C’s filtering between cars at the red light is lane splitting/filtering, which is not authorized in NH. C also has the helmet violation. The officer could stop C for the filtering and the noncompliant helmet.
3. What about D’s passenger seat and footrests?
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A motorcycle passenger must have a permanent passenger seat and footrests. D’s bike has no footrests for the passenger, so carrying the 16-year-old is illegal regardless of the helmet issue. D should not carry the passenger until the bike is properly equipped. D as the operator is responsible for the passenger’s safety and for complying with the equipment rule.