Police Dress As Highway Construction Workers, Hand Out Tickets

LEWISBORO, NY — State police troopers from Troop K handed out more than 40 tickets during last week's "Operation Hardhat" in Westchester County. It was a joint initiative with the state Department of Transportation that featured state troopers dressed as highway workers to crackdown on work zone violations and highlight the importance of safe driving through active construction. and maintenance work zones.

State police said members of Troop K patrolled a highway work zone on Interstate 684 in the Town of Lewisboro and issued tickets for a host of violations, including speeding, use of a cellphone while driving and work zone intrusion.

Violations issued by the state police during the three-day detail included:

• 12 Speeding
• 21 Move over violations
• 1 Failure to Wear Seatbelt
• 9 Other violations

Similar joint initiatives resulted in 112 tickets in the Rochester area and 136 in the Albany area for a variety of traffic violations, including failure to obey a flagger.

Construction and maintenance crews across the state work alongside fast-moving traffic each day, knowing their lives depend on drivers being alert, patient and cautious, police said. It is critically important that motorists eliminate distractions, pay attention to driving and, on multi-lane highways, move over a travel lane to give highway workers room.

New York’s Move Over Law requires motorists to carefully slow down and safely move over when approaching law enforcement vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, tow trucks and construction and maintenance vehicles stopped along the roads.

The State Department of Transportation recently launched a new Public Service Announcement highlighting the importance of moving over in construction work zones across the state.

Motorists are reminded that fines are doubled for speeding in a work zone, and in accordance with the Work Zone Safety Act of 2005, convictions of two or more speeding violations in a work zone could result in the suspension of an individual's driver license. Work zone safety tips can be found here.

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