Add §§1221-a, 1221-b & 118-a, amd §161, V & T L; amd §22, Transp L; add §99-ss, St Fin L
Increases penalties for endangerment of a highway worker; promotes work zone safety awareness; establishes a fund for additional work zone safety enforcement.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
750
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. MAGNARELLI, WOERNER, STECK, JACOBSON -- read once
and referred to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law and the transportation law,
in relation to work zone safety; and to amend the state finance law,
in relation to establishing the work zone safety fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new
2 section 1221-a to read as follows:
3 § 1221-a. Endangerment of a highway worker. 1. A person commits endan-
4 germent of a highway worker if the person is operating a motor vehicle
5 within a work area as defined in section one hundred sixty-one of this
6 chapter at any time one or more highway workers are in the work area and
7 does any of the following:
8 (a) drives through or around a work area in any lane not clearly
9 designated for use by motor vehicles traveling through or around a work
10 area; or
11 (b) fails to obey traffic control devices controlling the flow of
12 motor vehicles through the work area for any reason other than:
13 (i) an emergency;
14 (ii) the avoidance of an obstacle; or
15 (iii) the protection of the health and safety of another person.
16 2. (a) A person who violates this section where the highway worker
17 suffers no physical injury shall be fined not more than one thousand
18 dollars and not less than five hundred dollars.
19 (b) A person who violates this section where the highway worker
20 suffers physical injury and the violation was the sole proximate cause
21 of the injury shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars and not
22 less than one thousand dollars.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00850-01-5
A. 750 2
1 (c) A person who violates this section where the highway worker
2 suffers serious physical injury, as defined in section 10.00 of the
3 penal law and the violation was the sole proximate cause of the injury
4 shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars and not less than two
5 thousand dollars.
6 3. Any fine imposed pursuant to this section is mandatory and may not
7 be waived or reduced below the minimum as provided in subdivision two of
8 this section. Sixty percent of fines collected pursuant to this section
9 shall be paid to the work zone safety fund established by section nine-
10 ty-nine-ss of the state finance law.
11 4. No person shall be cited for endangerment of a highway worker for
12 any act or omission otherwise constituting a violation under this
13 section if the act or omission results, in whole or in part, from
14 mechanical failure of the person's motor vehicle or from the negligence
15 of a highway worker or another person.
16 § 2. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section
17 1221-b to read as follows:
18 § 1221-b. Work zone safety and outreach. The governor's traffic safety
19 committee, upon consultation with the commissioner of transportation,
20 the superintendent of state police, the commissioner, the chair of the
21 New York state thruway authority, local law enforcement agencies, and
22 representatives for contractors, laborers, and public employees, shall
23 design and implement a public education and outreach program to increase
24 motorist awareness of the importance of highway work zone safety, to
25 reduce the number of work zone incidents, including speeding, unauthor-
26 ized intrusions into work zones, and any conduct resulting in threats or
27 injuries to highway workers, and to increase and promote work zone safe-
28 ty.
29 § 3. Section 161 of the vehicle and traffic law, as added by chapter
30 92 of the laws of 1984 and as renumbered by chapter 303 of the laws of
31 2014, is amended to read as follows:
32 § 161. Work area or work zone. [That part of a highway being used or
33 occupied for the conduct of highway work, within which workers, vehi-
34 cles, equipment, materials, supplies, excavations, or other obstructions
35 are present.] An area of a highway, bridge, shoulder, median, or associ-
36 ated right-of-way, where construction, maintenance, utility work, acci-
37 dent response, or other incident response is being performed. The work
38 area must be marked by signs, traffic control devices, traffic control
39 signals, barriers, pavement markings, authorized emergency vehicles, or
40 hazard vehicles, and extends from the first traffic control device
41 erected for purposes of controlling the flow of motor vehicles through
42 the work area, including signs reducing the normal speed limit, to the
43 "END ROAD WORK" sign or the last temporary traffic control device. The
44 signs, traffic control devices, traffic control signals, barriers, pave-
45 ment markings, authorized emergency vehicles, or hazard vehicles must
46 meet department of transportation standards and the provisions of this
47 chapter, and must be installed properly.
48 § 4. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section
49 118-a to read as follows:
50 § 118-a. Highway worker. Any person employed by or on behalf of the
51 state, a county, city, town or village, a public authority, a local
52 authority, or a public utility company, or the agent or contractor of
53 any such entity, who has been assigned to perform work on a highway,
54 including maintenance, repair, flagging, utility work, construction,
55 reconstruction or operation of equipment on public highway infrastruc-
56 ture and associated rights-of-way in highway work areas, and shall also
A. 750 3
1 include any flagperson as defined in section one hundred fifteen-b of
2 this article.
3 § 5. Section 22 of the transportation law, as added by chapter 223 of
4 the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
5 § 22. Work zone safety and enforcement. The department shall, in coop-
6 eration with the superintendent of state police, the commissioner of
7 motor vehicles, the [chairman] chairperson of the New York state thruway
8 authority, local law enforcement agencies and representatives for
9 contractors [and], laborers and public employees, develop and implement
10 rules and regulations for the increased safety of work zones. Such rules
11 and regulations shall include, but shall not be limited to, a police
12 presence at all major active work zones as defined by rules and regu-
13 lations set forth by the commissioner, the use of radar speed display
14 signs at all major active work zones as defined by rules and regulations
15 set forth by the commissioner, and a system for reviewing work zone
16 safety and design for all work zones under the jurisdiction of the
17 department.
18 § 6. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-ss to
19 read as follows:
20 § 99-ss. Work zone safety fund. 1. There is hereby established in the
21 joint custody of the state comptroller and the commissioner of taxation
22 and finance a special revenue fund to be known as the "work zone safety
23 fund".
24 2. The fund shall consist of all monies appropriated for its purpose,
25 all monies required by this section or any other provision of law to be
26 paid into or credited to such fund, collected by the mandatory fines
27 imposed pursuant to section twelve hundred twenty-one-a of the vehicle
28 and traffic law.
29 3. Monies of the fund, when allocated, shall be disbursed to provide
30 work area safety enforcement, work area markings, radar speed display
31 signs, and police monitoring of work areas pursuant to section twenty-
32 two of the transportation law. Such monies shall be used to supplement
33 and not supplant any other funds which would otherwise have been
34 expended for work zone safety and enforcement.
35 § 7. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
36 have become a law.
