A new speed camera mounted on a trailer, shown Wednesday in Olympia, will patrol work zones on Washington highways. (Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
The Washington State Patrol will soon have a new tool to catch drivers speeding through highway work zones.
Starting in a few weeks, a speed camera mounted on an orange trailer will rotate through work zones across Washington in a bid to keep workers safe on state highways.
State officials showed off the new technology in a press conference Wednesday.
The camera will look for cars going over the speed limit, and take pictures of the vehicle and its license plate. You don’t have to smile, the photos won’t capture faces. Captured information will go to state troopers, who will review the images and mail infractions to drivers within 30 days.
The first violation will be a warning, but after that drivers can expect a $248 fine for each violation. The money will go toward work zone cameras, DUI patrols and safety programs. The violations won’t go on the driver’s record.
The state will post signage warning people when a work zone has a camera. And in some cases, digital readerboards will tell drivers how fast they’re going. People can appeal infractions to the state Office of Administrative Hearings.
The endeavor will start with one camera, before adding two more in the spring and reaching as many as six by the summer. Up to 15 cameras could be operating by 2027.
Cameras will only be active while workers are on site.
Washington averages over 1,300 work zone crashes annually, according to the state Department of Transportation.
In 2023, there were eight fatal crashes in work zones across the state, while another 28 caused serious injuries. Speeding was a factor in about a third of those crashes.
“The people being hurt and killed are not just our workers. They involve drivers, passengers and other travelers,” said state Transportation Secretary Julie Meredith. “These cameras are for everyone’s safety.”
State Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, remembers as a child hearing his father, a construction worker, had been hurt on the job. His dad was OK, but it drove home the importance of keeping workers safe.
“When people go to work building our infrastructure in this state, we want them to go home at night to their families,” said Liias, the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, “and for too many Washington families, they’ve had to pay an unacceptably high price for the public service that our great crews perform for us every day.”
A 2024 study from the Associated General Contractors of America found that 64% of highway contractors reported cars crashing into their construction sites within the past year.
In 2023, lawmakers unanimously authorized installing the cameras in work zones, at the request of the state Department of Transportation. At the time, the state estimated over 250,000 infractions per year once the new cameras were fully implemented.
Legislators on Wednesday acknowledged photo enforcement tends to be contentious.
“Cameras are not something that my party necessarily jumps up and down and says, ‘Hooray, hooray,’” said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima. “But when we’re saving lives, when we’re making our workplaces a better place for our workers to work so that they can, as Senator Liias said, go home safely every night, it’s worth the effort.”
Pennsylvania has a similar program. Transportation officials there have reported reduced speeding and crashes in work zones while crashes have otherwise increased nationally.
The Washington program is set to run until 2030.
Bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the state House and Senate are also trying this year to require drivers to pass an online course on work zone safety before getting their license.