HARRISBURG (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania State Police are working with PennDOT to bring back a program aimed at getting people to slow down and drive safely through work zones.
Capt. William Slaton says, in some work zones, State Police cars are parked among the yellow PennDOT work trucks.
“When the public sees a police car on the side of the road, typically the average member of the public slows down,” Slaton said. “And that's what we want them to do: Slow down.”
In what they’re calling Operation Yellow Jacket, Slaton says, troopers will be sitting in their marked cruisers — and there may also be a trooper in a PennDOT truck, monitoring speed and watching for violations, especially aggressive or distracted driving — the leading causes of crashes in work zones.
“So you may see these yellow trucks, and you might not know that there's a state trooper inside of that yellow truck trying to change driver behavior by encouraging the motoring public to slow down within these work zones.”
Din Abazi, executive director of PennDOT’s southeastern district, said, “When they see something, another trooper stationed down the road is contacted with the information and they initiate a traffic stop.”
He says the goal is just to get people to slow down and pay attention.
“Drive through every work zone as if your family member is working there — because they are someone's mom, dad, brother, sister, grandparent, and we want them all to go home safely,” Abazi said.
Abazi says there were more than 1,200 crashes in PennDOT work zones in 2023, resulting in 22 fatalities and 46 serious injuries. And since 1970, 91 PennDOT workers have been killed on the job.