Work‑zone sting: 90 tickets

New York State Police wrote 89 tickets in a four-hour Interstate 84 work-zone sting after placing a trooper in disguise inside the construction area. (troopers.ny.gov) The enforcement detail ran on April 21, 2026, in the Town of Montgomery in Orange County, where crews were repairing damaged guide rail in a closed lane on I-84, state police said. (troopers.ny.gov) Police said the disguised trooper, dressed as a construction worker, watched passing traffic from the active work zone and radioed violations to troopers waiting beyond the site. (troopers.ny.gov) Of the 89 citations, 54 were for cellphone use, two were for violations of New York’s Move Over Law, and 33 were listed as other non-moving violations. (troopers.ny.gov) The operation landed during National Work Zone Awareness Week, which runs April 20-24 this year and is built around the message “Safe Actions, Save Lives.” (ops.fhwa.dot.gov) New York has been tightening work-zone enforcement as crash totals remain high. The state says 572 crashes in work zones on New York roads in 2025 led to 87 injuries and three deaths of highway workers and vehicle occupants. (ny.gov) The state’s work-zone safety campaign also says more than 150 work-zone intrusions in 2024 caused injuries and four caused fatalities, defining an intrusion as a vehicle entering a closed section of roadway. (ny.gov) Operation Hard Hat is one of the state’s recurring tactics: a trooper works inside the zone in high-visibility gear while other officers stop drivers after the violation is spotted. On I-84 this week, that approach turned a closed lane and a disguised trooper into 89 tickets in one morning. (troopers.ny.gov)