Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement comes to Gold Star project
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Cars pass an Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement vehicle on the Gold Star Highway on July 7, 2021.
GILBERTON – One of the newest tools to enforce traffic laws in Pennsylvania work zones has come to the Shenandoah area.
PennDOT’s Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement (AWZSE) program is active on the Gold Star Highway, Route 924, as crews work to repave the highway as part of the multi-million dollar reconstruction project.
Today, a white Jeep Cherokee with camera and timing equipment mounted on its roof was parked near the entrance to the North Schuylkill Transfer Station, monitoring the southbound lane as crews worked on the highway’s median.
According to PennDOT’s webpage dedicated to the AWZSE program, it is intended “to reduce speeds in work zones, improve driver behavior, save worker and traveler lives, complement existing enforcement by PSP, and promote work zone safety.”
The program began in March of 2020.
Legislation creating the AWZSE program was signed into law in 2018, after 1,804 work zone crashes with 23 fatalities.
According to PennDOT, 43 percent of work zone crashes that year injured or killed someone.
The AWZSE apparatus detects vehicles that are travelling 11mph or more over the speed limit, captures their license plate, and sends a notice of violation to the vehicle’s owner.
The first offense is a warning letter. The second is a $75 fine, and any after are a $150 fine.
In 2020, the program issued 219,231 violations. Of the issued notices, 11.62% were repeat violators,
incurring fines for 2nd and subsequent violations of the statute. PennDOT and the Turnpike Commission collected $1.7 Million in fine funding, with a payment rate of 70%.
More information about the program can be found here.
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