Police could soon have a new way to ticket people driving too fast in construction zones.
A package of bills being considered by lawmakers would create automatic speed enforcement zones where road crews are working.
The bill package passed the State Senate earlier this month just days after a 53-year-old Lincoln Park man was struck and killed while working with a moving road crew on I-75 in Detroit.
Under the proposed bills police would no longer need to witness a traffic violation in order to write a ticket. Instead, speed cameras would detect drivers moving at least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. Drivers would first receive a written warning, with additional offenses possibly netting you up to a $300 ticket.
The Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association reported statistics from the Michigan State Police. In 2023, construction zones in the state saw over 8,000 crashes that led to just under 2,000 injuries and 24 deaths.
The Vice President of Government Affairs at Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, Lance Binoniemi, said changes will keep road workers in the state safe.
“We really just want people to change driver behavior, we want them to be more alert in a work zone and we think if a camera is there looking after their speed that they will be more alert,” Binoniemi said.
Binoniemi pointed to the state of Maryland who has seen an 85 percent drop in the number of speeders in work zones. They began using automatic speed enforcement zones in 2009.
“This will change driver behavior in Michigan. People will begin to start paying more attention and if they are paying more attention and they are watching their speeds they will definitely pay more attention to the people behind the orange barrels,” Binoniemi said.
The bills now wait for a vote in the House.