Speed cameras up and running in New York work zones amid rise in fatal crashes
NEW YORK -- Drivers in New York should be aware of more speed cameras now in work zones.
The family of a tow truck driver killed on the job is joining calls for better enforcement.
"I've lost someone who cared so deeply about everyone," said Destiny Feliciano.
Feliciano's uncle Campy Santiago, a father of three from Brooklyn, was assisting a disabled vehicle on the Long Island Expressway in October when he was killed by a speeding driver.
"Understand when they are there, they're there to help people," said Feliciano. "They're trying to get you home to your family. Help them get home to theirs."
When you see flashing lights, you must slow down and move over. It's the law. Yet road workers say it's not happening.
"Blowing their horn, or they just get impatient and they just go around you," said Richard Sheffield, a AAA tow truck driver.
On average, 26 tow truck drivers are killed in the U.S. every year. And the numbers are rising.
AAA blames what it called an epidemic of bad driving that started during the pandemic.
"In the last 46 days, six tow truck drivers have been killed. Six other workers also lost their lives by the side of the road," said AAA Northeast spokesperson Robert Sinclair Jr.
Ali Kawan Edwards of Newark was killed this week on the Grand Central Parkway.
New York has rolled out 30 work zone speed cameras to enforce the law, yet that unleashed a social media firestorm of critics calling it a money grab.
The Department of Transportation posts its changing speed camera locations on its website, but inaccurate camera locations were widely shared.
"This new program is really all about worker safety. At the end of the day we want to get our workers home to their families," said Stephen Canzoneri, with DOT.
"The amount of people we've lost doing their jobs for something so simple, it shouldn't happen," said Feliciano.
The Move Over Law applies to all road workers, not just law enforcement. AAA is lobbying to expand it to apply to disabled motorists. Nearly 100 in the Tri-State Area have been killed in five years.
The state's work zone speed cameras are only operational when work is being done.