A bill to improve highway work zone safety is headed to the House floor. The legislation would create a pilot program for automated speed enforcement in select highway work zones, according to the bill’s sponsor.
House Transportation Committee Chair John Blanton, R-Salyersville, presented House Bill 192 to the committee Tuesday.
The legislation was inspired by an increase in highway work zone accidents due to speeding – many of which have caused major injuries and death.
For Blanton, the legislation is also personal. HB 192 is known as the Jared Lee Helton Act of 2024. Blanton named the legislation after his 22-year-old neighbor who was hit and killed by a vehicle while working as a highway contractor.
Under HB 192, automated speed enforcement cameras would issue a fine to violators going 10 or more miles over the speed limit.
The pilot program would run for 3 years, and Kentucky would join 26 other states who successfully use automated speed enforcement cameras in work zones, Blanton said. To him, safety is the main goal of the legislation.
“Let me be clear, I’m not interested in issuing citations,” Blanton said. “I’m interested in slowing people down in work zones to protect not just the workers, but, quite frankly, to protect other people traveling through these work zones.”
HB 192 would mandate signage be installed to notify drivers of the cameras and the proper speed limit, and the cameras would only be in use while workers are present.
On a first violation, the civil penalty would be $75. On a second or subsequent violation within a 3-year period, the penalty would be $125 per violation. Drivers would have an opportunity to appeal a citation.
Bill Bell, executive director of the state Office of Highway Safety, said there have been 49 deaths in work zones in Kentucky in the last 5 years, with 7 of those workers being Transportation Cabinet employees or contract workers.
Bell, along with Deputy State Highway Engineer Jason Siwula and Transportation Secretary Jim Gray, testified alongside Blanton in support of HB 192.
“These crashes are happening more frequently,” Gray said. “That’s why we’re urging this action so strongly.”
Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville, said he supports the effort to reduce fatalities in work zones, but he has concerns with computers issuing the tickets instead of police officers. He worries that someone who drives through a work zone multiple times a day may accrue thousands in fines before their first citation arrives in the mail.
Bell said drivers cannot get another citation during the 14-day appeal period.
Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, said she supports HB 192.
“I do support this bill regardless of the outcome because I’ve gotten probably 200 emails from people supporting it as well,” she said.
Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, said highway work zone safety has been important to her since she was elected in 2019.
“I don’t want us to forget that we’re having this conversation because people are being killed,” she said. “This isn’t just us trying to be ‘big brother,’ and driving is a privilege.”
The committee approved HB 192 by a 23-2 vote. It now heads to the full House for consideration.
Information from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission.
