LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A new law will allow speed cameras to be put up along Arkansas interstates, but speeding tickets won't show up in a mailbox.
Starting Tuesday, cameras can be put in work zones to clock how fast you drive.
But Dave Parker with the Arkansas Department of Transportation said this isn't about writing tickets but rather focusing on making roads safer for drivers and their workers.
"What's changing [Tuesday] is we will actually have a camera operating in a work zone," Parker said, adding that this isn't the state's first effort to slow down drivers. "We first launched the slow down vote down campaign in early 2022. This is an extension of that we needed more ways to get the public's attention and to enforce it."
Between 2018 and 2022, the number of crashes in work zones more than doubled.
The year ARDOT started their "slow down phone down" campaign, that number dropped about 34%.
"The goal to this, again, is awareness, the goal is not to write a bunch of tickets, we've got to continue to get the word out about work zone safety," Parker said.
But if drivers do get a ticket because the camera caught them speeding, it wont come from a letter, but a cop down the road.
"If you are in violation, you could be recorded your image, and then that information is transported to the office for immediately. And then you could get pulled over," Parker said.
The camera has an estimated $70,000 price tag. But parker said, there's no price on safety.
"If one of these cameras, if two of these cameras can can remind people driving through work zones to slow down, and that saves their lives. Maybe that construction worker, I think it's worth it," Parker said.
Right now, ARDOT said they only have one camera, and that it will rotate through different construction sites.
The state hopes to get more cameras in the next year.