Photo: Portland Police Bureau
ODOT and the Portland Police Bureau this summer will again deploy a mobile photo radar device on an interstate highway night work zone to reduce the high rate of work zone fatalities and injuries.
The first enforcement action will take place the week of Monday July 17 on Interstate 84.
In this latest project, the photo radar unit will be deployed on about 20 nights between July 17 and Sept. 30 on I-84 in Portland in the work zone where new sign bridges will be put in place to hold new RealTime signs. The enforcement will take place in both the eastbound and westbound lanes but never at the same time.
Work zone crashes are a problem in Oregon.
Oregon averaged 488 work zone crashes a year 2011-2015.
Oregon averaged 13 serious injury crashes and five crashes with fatalities 2011-2015.
On average, a work zone crash occurs in Oregon every 18 hours.
More than one person is injured on average every day in a work zone crash in Oregon.
Four of five work zone fatalities are drivers and their passengers, not highway workers.
In 2013, the Oregon Legislature made permanent what had been a work zone photo radar pilot project.
Signs will inform motorists when the photo radar enforcement is active.
The photo radar device takes two photos when it detects a speeding vehicle: the first as the car approaches and the second as it drives away to record the license plate. The registered owner of the vehicle then gets a ticket in the mail.
At all times, police may still conduct regular traffic enforcement and drivers are urged to obey speed limits and all other traffic laws.
A statewide survey for ODOT showed that 66.1 percent of Oregonians polled support the use of photo radar for traffic enforcement in work zones. Since 2000, motorists continued to identify speeding as one of the greatest problems observed while traveling through work zones.
The partnership is part of an effort to make work zones safer for the public and for construction workers. Previous efforts with photo radar have shown a decrease in work zone speeding when photo radar is present.
The goal of the project is safety and to encourage drivers to voluntarily slow down.
Source: Oregon Department of Transportation