A late-night drive turned into a serious criminal matter for a Dover woman who allegedly spent part of early Sunday morning traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of Route 101, a highway not exactly known as a good place for improvised lane changes. The incident ended with a collision, multiple felony charges, and a trooper whose cruiser took the hit so nobody else had to.
New Hampshire State Police confirmed that just before 2 a.m., dispatch began receiving a wave of calls about a 2019 Nissan Kicks heading the wrong direction near Exit 9 in Exeter. That kind of report tends to set off alarm bells fast, and troopers responded accordingly. What followed was a split-second decision by one trooper that likely prevented a far worse outcome for other drivers sharing the road that night.
Cassandra Aldecoa, 21, of Dover, was identified as the driver of the Nissan. She now faces a stack of charges that includes felony reckless conduct, second-degree assault, criminal mischief, and a misdemeanor count of aggravated driving under the influence. Her passenger walked away with misdemeanor charges of their own, including disorderly conduct, contempt, and violating conditions of release. Both were held on preventive detention and were set to be arraigned Monday.
No serious injuries were reported in the crash, which, given the nature of a wrong-way highway collision, is something of a minor miracle. The outcome could have been considerably grimmer, and the fact that it was not speaks directly to how troopers trained to handle exactly this kind of situation responded under pressure.
A Trooper Put His Cruiser in the Line of Fire, Literally
Trooper Shane McClure was the officer who responded to the reports of a wrong-way driver on Route 101. When he spotted the Nissan heading straight toward oncoming traffic, he made a calculated call: he positioned his cruiser directly in the vehicle’s path to force a stop. The Nissan hit the cruiser. McClure was not seriously hurt, and neither was anyone else.
That kind of maneuver is not something troopers do lightly. Deliberately placing a vehicle in the path of an oncoming car, even one going the wrong direction, carries real risk. It is, however, sometimes the fastest and most effective way to neutralize a threat to every other driver on the road, and in this case it worked exactly as intended.
Wrong-Way Driving Is Not a Rare Problem in New Hampshire
What might come as a surprise to many is just how often this situation plays out across the state. According to New Hampshire state data, troopers received 811 reports of wrong-way drivers between 2023 and 2025. That breaks down to more than 270 reports per year, roughly five or six every single week.
Of those reports, investigators confirmed that in 77 separate crashes over that same three-year window, the driver was in fact traveling the wrong direction or on the wrong side of the road when the collision occurred. These are not close calls. These are crashes with real consequences, and they happen far more often than most people realize.
What This Incident Can Teach Drivers
The Route 101 crash is a reminder that wrong-way driving is not just a fluke or an isolated lapse in judgment. It is a recurring threat on New Hampshire roads, and knowing how to respond is genuinely useful information for any driver.
State officials have clear guidance on what to do if you encounter a wrong-way driver: pull as far to the right shoulder as safely possible and call 911 immediately. Do not attempt to stop the vehicle yourself, flash your lights to redirect them, or try to intervene in any way. Leave that to the professionals who are trained and equipped to handle it. Trooper McClure’s response on Sunday is a pretty good illustration of why.
The other obvious takeaway is about impaired driving. Aggravated DUI charges suggest a blood alcohol level significantly above the legal limit, and Route 101 at nearly 2 a.m. is not a forgiving environment for that kind of error. Wrong-way incidents spike during late-night hours, particularly on weekends, because that is when impaired drivers are most likely to be behind the wheel.
What Comes Next for Cassandra Aldecoa
Aldecoa was scheduled to appear before a judge Monday for arraignment. She faces multiple felony charges, which carry substantially more serious consequences than misdemeanors. Criminal mischief, reckless conduct, and second-degree assault charges at the felony level reflect the fact that her actions endangered not just herself but everyone else on that stretch of highway, including the trooper who ultimately stopped her.
Her passenger faces misdemeanor charges, including one count of contempt and one count of violating conditions of release, suggesting this may not be either party’s first interaction with the criminal justice system.
The case is a stark illustration of how a single night’s decision can quickly snowball from a traffic concern into a criminal matter with long-term consequences.