Operation Yellow Jacket Stings Speeders
State troopers pose as PennDOT workers to nab more than 100 speeders on I-79 North.
Photos
More than 100 motorists felt the sting of Operation Yellow Jacket on Interstate 79 Friday.
PennDOT and state police partnered for the undercover operation to crack down on speeding through work zones.
As part of the program, state troopers disguised as PennDOT workers observe motorists’ speeds on the highways. The information is radioed to a trooper on traffic patrol who pulls over the speeding vehicle and issues a citation.
“I was extremely pleased with the success of Operation Yellow Jacket,” PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said Tuesday. “I thought within the time frame they wouldn’t get anywhere near the citations they did.”
While Friday’s program took place on I-79 North, drivers can expect to encounter Operation Yellow Jacket setups at highway construction sites throughout PennDOT’s District 11, which covers Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties.
“With more than 100 projects in our district, motorists can be assured that additional enforcement efforts like Operation Yellow Jacket will be employed throughout 2011,” Cowan said.
Things kicked off around 10:30 a.m. Friday in Wexford. Sitting in a yellow PennDOT truck and dressed in a yellow vest and hard hat, Cpl. Kevin Brown used a radar gun to clock speeders. He radioed to troopers farther down the highway to pull over the speeding motorists.
Cowan said troopers cited 45 motorists for speeding during the three-and-a-half-hour operation and two others for other violations. Another 52 motorists were warned for speeding, he said.
“We were really thrilled with how the operation went, and I was glad they did issue some warnings,” he said. “I don’t think any of us just want to see a blanket of tickets being written.”
Speeding through construction zones endangers drivers and puts workers in danger, Cowan said. He noted that three contractors and one PennDOT worker were killed in work zone crashes across Pennsylvania last year.
“Sometime the workers are mere inches away from the traffic,” he said. “One false step or just a one-second lapse of concentration from the driver can mean a fatality.”
Most often though, he said, it’s drivers or passengers who die in accidents. When traveling through work zones,drivers should drive slowly, avoid distractions, turn on headlights and allow additional time to get to their destination, he said. Drivers also should expect the unexpected when traveling through work zones.
“Not only do we as motorists need to be concerned with our concentration, but with our own safety,” he said.
br549
12:47 pm on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
I am all for slowing down in construction zones and construction worker safety. But I wish the troopers would take their own advice. I was traveling the turnpike a few weeks ago and doing the speed limit through the contsturction zone when I was passed by a small vehicle going so fast that my car shook as it passed me. I thought for sure I would see it pulled over a little farther up the road. I passed a marked police car sitting in the median of the contruction area less than a mile up the highway. Did he pull the vehicle over? NO. I was surprised until I reached the state police barraks and saw said vehicle going down the ramp on the other side of the highway into the barracks. Officers - PLEASE slow down also. You can also injure or kill a construction worker.
Trina
2:36 pm on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
You have no clue if he was responding to a call that was canceled upon him getting off of the ramp. Get your facts first and don't assume you know what was going on cause you did not hear if he was dispatched somewhere. Heck there could have been a situation going on at the barracks.