More highway work zones in Central New York will soon have automated systems to catch and punish speeders. The state Department of Transportation (DOT) is adding four speed enforcement cameras to its fleet and will spread them out among the region's many work areas along state highways.
The speed enforcement systems are mounted onto the tops of specially marked cars. They include a radar unit that automatically fires a camera when speed 11 miles an hour above the posted limit is detected. The camera records the speeding vehicle's license plate. An operator inside the car ensures that the data is accurate before clicking the button that will generate a speeding ticket and send it to the home address of the license plate owner.
Fines start at $50 but do not add points to one's license. Drivers are warned about the use of speed enforcement cameras by signs posted in advance of the cameras that say cameras are in use ahead. DOT publishes a list of dates and places where speed zone cameras will be in use,
The state has had speed enforcement vehicles for its work zones for several years, but, under a test program, they could only be used in work zones in controlled-access highways such as the state Thruway. This fiscal year's state budget allows the camera units to be used in any work zone on a state highway.
"So what this expansion does is it takes us away from those long-term work zones that have barriers," said Betsy Parmley, Central New York Regional Director of the state Department of Transportation, "And it gets us to where we have barrels and cones, and where our workers and our contract workers are much more exposed to those traveling motorists. "
Highway work zones remain some of the nation's most dangerous places to work. Last year, according to Parmley, there were 366 crashes in work zones across the state, an average of exactly one per day. 58 people were injured in those crashes and two state highway employees died.
State information campaigns have pleaded with drivers to slow down in work zones and to move over when possible to give roadside workers safe room to work. The work zone speeding cameras represent a stronger effort to force compliance and punish speeders.
Parmley said that so far this year, speed camera systems have been used 141 times, generating more than 22,000 tickets, which they call "notices of liability." She notes that data from 2025, before the expansion of speed zone cameras, shows a 30% reduction in speeding violations.
"We owe it to them to do everything in our power to keep them safe," Parmley said.
In a statement, the department outlined its policy on the use and retention of the data generated by the speed enforcement systems. "Information collected through the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program is limited to the registered vehicle owner, staff who work on the program, and courts in the event of a dispute. By law, the Department of Transportation retains the video until the Notice of Liability is resolved, either by payment or through a court action. The information is not provided to anyone else, nor is it ever sold," the statement said.
