Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A package of bi-partisan bills co-sponsored by a local lawmaker has been approved that would allow automated speed cameras in construction zones and motorists to be ticketed.

The legislation approved Thursday by the Michigan Senate would allow for the placement of automated speed cameras in construction zones to help protect Michigan’s road workers.

Signs would warn motorists that the devices are being used. Those going at least 10mph over the speed limit in a work zone while workers are present would be ticketed. A first infraction would result in a written warning. The second would be a $150 citation, and a $300 ticket for the third - if the violations occur within a three-year period.

HB 4132 and 4133 are co-sponsored by Republican State Representative Mike Mueller of Linden and Muskegon Democrat Will Snyder. Mueller was just re-elected to another term and is a former Livingston County Sheriff’s Deputy.

The bills passed the state House in June 2023.

At that time, Rob Coppersmith, Executive Vice President of the Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association (MITA), said “We appreciate the House taking action on this commonsense bipartisan legislation that would ensure our construction workers are protected while they’re hard at work fixing Michigan’s roads. Construction sites are dangerous places, especially when working on the side of highways with traffic moving at high rates of speed and distracted driving. By adding automated speed cameras to construction zones, we can help protect our construction workers by strictly enforcing work zone speed limits”.

In 2023, the Office of Highway Safety Planning reports the following statistics: 8,017 work zone crashes, 21 fatal work zone crashes, 24 work zone fatalities, and 1,896 work zone injuries.

The Detroit News reports the following:
“Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, opposed the measures, saying he wasn't comfortable with the idea of expanding policing authority to the transportation department and with tickets being issued to a vehicle instead of the specific driver. ‘I do think this is a slippery slope toward governance by automated systems and not by people’ Moss said”.

The bills now head to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk.