AGC backs speed safety cameras in work zones — AGC is backing legislation that authorizes the use of speed-safety camera systems in state highway work zones.
Brandon Dully, president of Guy F. Atkinson Construction, joined AGC Chief Lobbyist Jerry VanderWood in testifying in support of SSB 5272 that is sponsored by Senate Transportation Committee Chair Marko Liias (D-21).
“We focus on complex transportation projects while minimizing impacts on the traveling public; unfortunately, that means we work every day and every night out on the roads,” Dully told Transportation Committee members. “We control everything we possibly can, but we can’t control the traveling public. We have near misses, equipment damage, direct hits. Last March an event occurred that spurred the conversation and call to action for our industry. Early one Sunday morning, two of my workers, a highly trained traffic-control supervisor and a traffic-control worker were struck by a drunk driver who lost control while racing another vehicle on the driveway. Both employees were taken to the hospital. Our foreman has undergone over a dozen surgeries but is still confined to a wheelchair. Legislation like this could have prevented it from happening. We need legislation like this to protect our workers on the highway.”
Click here to view Dully’s full testimony.
VanderWood made the case that speed zone cameras work. “A meta-analysis by research firm Cochrane reviewed 35 separate studies that looked at the efficacy of different speed-camera programs,” VanderWood said. “It concluded, ‘The consistency of reported reductions in speed and crash outcomes across all studies show that speed cameras are a worthwhile intervention for reducing the number of road traffic injuries and deaths.’”
The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Transportation Committee and now awaits further action in the Rules Committee.
For more information contact AGC Chief Lobbyist Jerry VanderWood.