Operation Hard Hat

Utica Police Dept.

Partners with Dept.

Of Transportation to bring awareness to work zone safety.

Talked about but is extremely vital to the growth of a community and to those who are building it.

Marie therese dominguez: but today's mission really was to focus on distracted drivers in workzones.

The new york state department of transportation in partnership with teh city of utica and utica police department conducted operation hard hat.

The statewide campaign usually puts state troopers in highway maintenance gear to crack down on distracted driving.

Now, for the firs time, the operation is hyper localmarie-te are distractednd they're notpaya whole bunch of other things and they're not paying attention to the folks that are actually working in the work zone and we have to bring awareness to this because literally we've lost lives.

Over just a few hours, 16 driving tickets were issues.

Of e 16, 11 we cell pne violatns.

Mayor rert paieri: i know th there'sa lot n and there's a lot of detours and at this point be mindful of it it just didn't happen overnight it's been there you know what you're getting into.

Be mindful of the fact that these men and women want to go home just like you do and they want to go home safely to their family.

Around the city of utica, ther are several developmental zones marie-there dominguez: the amount of work that the ot is doing right here in the city of utica is phenomenal we completed the north south alterio last year.

All of the work that we're doing on fivehoc projects going on in utica and we want to make sure that if people are out here working that there safely able to do that.

Mayor palmieri says that this operation will continue to take place.

Mayor robert palmieri: i think you'll see it more frequently i think you'll see it in different areas at this point and this is not so much the issue tickets as it is to bring awareness to the drivers.

Reporting in utica, i'm chelsea sherrod newschannel 2.

Here's what you can find on wktv.com right