The state Transportation Cabinet is taking steps to implement a new law designed to make highway work zones safer for workers and motorists. The Jared Lee Helton Act of 2025 allows the cabinet to use new technology to let police know when drivers are exceeding the speed limit in work zones by more than 10 miles an hour. Allen Blair is a cabinet spokesman.
“This new bill will allow us to use automated camera technology to capture a speeding car with with some identification, like a picture of the license plate, which will be communicated in real time to a officer that it is downstream of the work zone.”
The law is named for a Magoffin County man struck and killed by a vehicle in Tennessee in 2019 while working in a work zone. Blair said the information gathered will not be stored by the cabinet or local police.
“It is transmitted in real time, and there is no recording of the data. So, you know that is, you know, a concern. We worked really hand in hand with legislature, and we appreciate the legislature’s support in getting this.”
The cabinet reports last year, there were more than 1,200 work zone crashes resulting in nearly 300 injuries and seven deaths. Blair said details on what equipment to purchase and where to put it are being worked out now.
