Police investigate driver who struck construction flagger in Onondaga County
A driver revved an engine and struck a construction flagger in Onondaga County, and police are investigating. New York logged 450 work-zone intrusions statewide in 2024.
Police are investigating after a driver revved an engine and deliberately struck a construction flagger with a vehicle in Onondaga County. The case puts a spotlight on a danger road crews say is too familiar: motorists who treat active work zones as if they were empty stretches of pavement.
New York’s automated work zone speed enforcement program counted 450 work-zone intrusions on state roads maintained by the Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority in 2024. The state says that demonstration program, created by 2021 legislation signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, allows NYSDOT and the Thruway Authority to impose monetary liability on registered owners for speeding in work zones.
Flaggers are supposed to be the human buffer between moving traffic and crews inside the work zone. NYSDOT says a flagger’s job is work zone protection and traffic control, helping alert traffic or stop vehicles intermittently as work progresses, while keeping other workers and the public protected.
The state has also tried to reinforce that protection with enforcement. New York State Police Troop T issued 101 tickets during an Operation Hard Hat detail on the Thruway on June 9, 2026, including 70 speeding tickets. State police have also handled similar flagger-strike cases elsewhere in New York, including a press release headlined “Montour man intentionally strikes flagger” and another titled “Arrest Made Following Incident Involving Flagger Struck by Vehicle in Beacon.” In one comparable case, a driver who hit a flagger with a car at a roadwork site was arrested.
The Onondaga County investigation comes as state officials keep urging motorists to slow down and move over in work zones. The Move Over Law, in effect since Jan. 1, 2012, protects law enforcement officers, emergency workers, tow operators and service vehicle operators, and the same safety logic extends to crews working behind cones, barrels and flagging stations.
For crews working roadside in Central New York, the risk is not theoretical. A flagger standing beside traffic can be the difference between a controlled lane shift and a crash, and police are now examining whether this latest strike should add another arrest to a growing list of work-zone enforcement cases across New York.
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