UTICA, N.Y. — Efforts to protect highway workers and encourage safe driving in work zones are taking center stage as part of National Work Zone Awareness Week.
This year’s theme is Safe Actions Save Lives, and the New York State Department of Transportation is launching Operation Hard Hats, which places State troopers with radar in work zones.
New York is also using the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement Program, which uses cameras to catch drivers speeding in work zones.
Michael Pawloski, acting regional director for Region 2 of the New York State Department of Transportation, explained that the program identifies vehicles speeding through a work zone, takes a picture of the license plate and then issues a violation in the mail.
Pawloski said, “All of those work zones where that is deployed, they have actual signs up that say you are about to enter a camera…a speed zone-enforced camera area.”
The governor is proposing to expand the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement Program to more highways in this year’s State budget and add criminal penalties for assault and harassment against highway workers.
Efforts to protect highway workers and encourage safe driving in work zones are taking center stage as part of National Work Zone Awareness Week.