More work zone speed cameras are coming — and so are the fines

The free pass for your first speeding ticket in a work zone is going away. The state rules are changing, and more cameras are coming.

When the legislature authorized the use of mobile work zone speed cameras, it gave drivers a break. The first violation would be free, and that’s how it’s gone since April of last year, when the cameras went live.

“Right now, it’s a zero fine on the first one, but the second one, you get $248 starting July 1,” Washington State Patrol (WSP) Public Information Officer Chris Loftis said. “The first one’s going to move from zero to $125.”

More than 54,000 violations in 10 months

The grace period is over.

And the stats tell you why. More than 54,000 violations have been sent out for speeding in work zones in 10 months. Most are first-timers, but Loftis said not all.

“We’ve collected $433,436 so far,” he said. “That’s that many people who have gotten the second violations, and there’s still more in process. So there are a lot of repeat offenders. There are a lot of frequent flyers, literally in this that we’ve got to take care of.”

I can hear you saying, “The Washington State Patrol and legislature are just doing this to make money.”

The Washington State Patrol said this is about changing behavior. Work zone crashes and deaths continue to go up across the state, and Loftis said something had to be done.

“We needed to do something that was going to change behavior because the behavior was changing, but it was going in the wrong direction,” he said.

The only thing that seems to move the needle on this is to have a crash impact your family or to take your money.

“We’re not in the punish-you business,” Loftis said. “We’re not in the fine you business. We’re in the slow you down business and save your life business. We’re in the save the lives of the people working on the side of the roads business.”

More work zone speed cameras coming statewide

There are six active mobile work zone cameras operating in western Washington right now. They are going to be expanded into eastern Washington later this year, and by 2027, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) plans to have up to 15 of them operating around the state.

If you haven’t seen one, they are very small and very mobile. They are mounted on a short trailer and towed behind an SUV. They really could be in any work zone on a state road or freeway.

“They move them around,” Loftis said. “They move around to where the need is. They also move them around, just to make sure that people just don’t become acclimated to them.”

WSDOT needs to post a sign warning drivers of the upcoming camera enforcement and put a speed limit sign nearby.

In the month that the mobile camera has been active on northbound I-5 across the Ship Canal Bridge, more than 1,200 drivers have been hit or will be hit with violations. The stats on whether those are first-timers or not haven’t been released.

A trooper does review every potential violation.

My message is simple: Please slow down in work zones. It’s hard enough to do your job with cars whizzing by. Those workers are out there for you, trying to make the roads better.

Those workers should be able to make it home alive at the end of their shifts, too.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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