Slow down, pay attention and move over!

That's the message the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and State Police want drivers to understand when they are traveling in the area of a construction or maintenance work zone.

“The incidents that occur on the roadways and the cell phone use and the inattention just occurs, minute by minute, hour by hour, all day long,” said Heather M. Pillsworth, DOT public information officer.

“There's only a cone or a barrier separating them from traffic," says DOT resident engineer Shahid Quadri. “When motorists are not paying attention, when there's distractions, cell phones and what not, or they're speeding up, they're not slowing down. Anything can happen.”

According to a report conducted by Associated General Contractors of America, during the past year, 60% of highway workers reported that motorists have crashed into their work zones, putting their lives and the lives of other drivers at risk.

“The latest one we had was right on 84. When a car came in, in the slow lane, and hit the guy driving the truck,” says Quadri. “A young, 20-year employee. He was, he went to the hospital with a back injury.”

Along with special equipment to take the brunt of an impact from a crash, the DOT and State Police are teaming up for “Operation Hardhat.”

“We have a trooper in the work zone, dressed up as a construction worker. And if he notices a violation, he calls it out on the radio, and one of the cars in that detail are in a zone to pull the person over,” says State Trooper Kareem Washington.

In 2020, 1,770 tickets were issued by State Police during Operation Hardhat, which surpassed the previous year's total by nearly 70%. Already in 2021, troopers have issued 871 tickets in highway work zones on state roadways.

The tickets are serving as a reminder that what a driver does behind the wheel has a ripple effect.

Pillsworth said, “Our crews, our mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, the men and women out there have families that they want to go to at the end of the day and be home with. And our biggest thing here is to get them home safely.”

DOT representatives say not only are cell phones and speeding an issue in construction work zones, but also aggressive driving, saying that they have seen vehicles driving on the shoulder just to beat traffic.