Police Crack Down On Construction Zone Speeders

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Just in time for the Memorial Day weekend, PennDOT and state police are teaming up to crack down on speeding through construction zones. They are calling it Operation Yellow Jacket.

This construction season, PennDOT has more than 100 projects ongoing in Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties.

"Last year, there were 22 fatalities in work zones of Pennsylvania," said Steve Cowen, of PennDOT. "Five of them right here in District 11."

It's for that reason that state police and PennDOT have announced the start of Operation Yellow Jacket. Its aim is really quite simple, get motorist to slow down in construction zones.

"Even though the construction zones might not be active when you're going through them, you still need to obey the speeding limit throughout that construction zone," said Trooper Robin Mungo, of the Pennsylvania State Police.

But why is it called Operation Yellow Jacket? It has nothing to do with getting stung by a high fine or some kind of speeding ticket; it actually has more to do with the color of the vehicle that might just catch you.

"We have a state trooper who is seated [in a] PennDOT vehicle. He'll be running radar and we'll have other vehicles out waiting to enforce," added Trooper Mungo. "Any violation is a serious fine because there are a lot of things that go with that. Not to get into the insurance business but you're looking at increased rates, you're looking at having to appear before a magistrate. It's best just to obey the speed limit and as long as you're doing that and you're obeying all traffic rules you won't get pulled over."

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