Work zone speed cameras save lives, should be permanent, NYS officials say
State Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez joined construction and labor leaders on Friday in Hauppauge to push for enhanced protections for highway workers. Credit: Rick Kopstein
State officials want to make work zone speed cameras permanent in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget and increase penalties for drivers who assault highway workers.
Transportation officials, highway workers and contractors gathered Friday for a news conference in Hauppauge to urge state lawmakers to approve the budget provisions needed to keep highway workers safe.
State Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said work zone speed cameras had been proved to slow down drivers passing through active work zones. She said no workers had been injured or killed in the nearly two years since the cameras were implemented.
"We make no apologies for trying to keep our workers safe, because the bottom line is the program is working," Dominguez said. "In locations where the cameras have been present for more than one time, fewer notices of liability are being issued, meaning that people are indeed slowing down."
Transportation officials said so far this year, work zone cameras on Long Island have issued 2,181 notices of liability tracked to a vehicle owner’s registration. Last year the cameras on the Island issued 18,986 notices, and in about seven months in 2023, issued 47,445 notices, officials said.
The state pilot program, which set up 20 speed cameras on state highways and 10 cameras on the New York State Thruway, was authorized in active work zones through October 2026. The budget would make the program permanent.
"By driving down speeds in work zones and enhancing penalties for assaults against them, the Governor's proposals will enhance protections for transportation workers and make our roads safer for everyone," Hochul's Long Island press secretary Gordon Tepper said in an email.
Dominguez said revenue from the cameras paid for the program and any additional surplus was used for worker safety training. Violations start with a $50 fine and can escalate to $100. She said one of the cameras on Long Island caught a driver traveling 118 mph in a work zone.
(Newsday submitted a Freedom of Information Law request in June of last year seeking data on the number of speed camera tickets and revenue collected during the program’s first year but the Department of Transportation asked for extensions multiple times and has not provided any information.)
Transportation officials said 400 state highway workers maintain 4,000 miles on Long Island highways.
A nationwide AAA survey of highway workers said that 40% of workers faced a near miss by vehicles once a week.
Another provision in Hochul’s budget calls for increasing the penalty for assaulting a highway worker from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Officials noted a driver last year who attempted to bypass a maintenance truck on a highway ramp in Syosset. The driver assaulted the highway worker for blocking his route, Dominguez said.
Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors’ Association, pointed to the death of Raymond Hirt, 51, of Mastic Beach, who was working as a road flagman.
Reginald Ross killed Hirt in May 2010 following a confrontation at a work site, Newsday has reported. Ross was convicted in 2015 of shooting Hirt, weeks after he was upset about road construction on Portion Road in Ronkonkoma, Newsday previously reported.
"Anyone who threatens a worker on their job site, that are simply doing what they're supposed to be doing, should be protected," Herbst said. "There's no reason not to support the safety for this industry."
With Lorena Mongelli
State officials want to make work zone speed cameras permanent in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget and increase penalties for drivers who assault highway workers.
Transportation officials, highway workers and contractors gathered Friday for a news conference in Hauppauge to urge state lawmakers to approve the budget provisions needed to keep highway workers safe.
State Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said work zone speed cameras had been proved to slow down drivers passing through active work zones. She said no workers had been injured or killed in the nearly two years since the cameras were implemented.
"We make no apologies for trying to keep our workers safe, because the bottom line is the program is working," Dominguez said. "In locations where the cameras have been present for more than one time, fewer notices of liability are being issued, meaning that people are indeed slowing down."
Transportation officials said so far this year, work zone cameras on Long Island have issued 2,181 notices of liability tracked to a vehicle owner’s registration. Last year the cameras on the Island issued 18,986 notices, and in about seven months in 2023, issued 47,445 notices, officials said.
The state pilot program, which set up 20 speed cameras on state highways and 10 cameras on the New York State Thruway, was authorized in active work zones through October 2026. The budget would make the program permanent.
"By driving down speeds in work zones and enhancing penalties for assaults against them, the Governor's proposals will enhance protections for transportation workers and make our roads safer for everyone," Hochul's Long Island press secretary Gordon Tepper said in an email.
Dominguez said revenue from the cameras paid for the program and any additional surplus was used for worker safety training. Violations start with a $50 fine and can escalate to $100. She said one of the cameras on Long Island caught a driver traveling 118 mph in a work zone.
(Newsday submitted a Freedom of Information Law request in June of last year seeking data on the number of speed camera tickets and revenue collected during the program’s first year but the Department of Transportation asked for extensions multiple times and has not provided any information.)
Transportation officials said 400 state highway workers maintain 4,000 miles on Long Island highways.
A nationwide AAA survey of highway workers said that 40% of workers faced a near miss by vehicles once a week.
Another provision in Hochul’s budget calls for increasing the penalty for assaulting a highway worker from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Officials noted a driver last year who attempted to bypass a maintenance truck on a highway ramp in Syosset. The driver assaulted the highway worker for blocking his route, Dominguez said.
Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors’ Association, pointed to the death of Raymond Hirt, 51, of Mastic Beach, who was working as a road flagman.
Reginald Ross killed Hirt in May 2010 following a confrontation at a work site, Newsday has reported. Ross was convicted in 2015 of shooting Hirt, weeks after he was upset about road construction on Portion Road in Ronkonkoma, Newsday previously reported.
"Anyone who threatens a worker on their job site, that are simply doing what they're supposed to be doing, should be protected," Herbst said. "There's no reason not to support the safety for this industry."
With Lorena Mongelli
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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