"Not giving your full attention could change somebody's life forever" NYS DOT reminds drivers to slow down, move over.

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Our community, your community.

That's the message New York State Department of Transportation is sharing during National Work Zone Safety week this year. They hope to remind drivers that the workers who are operating on the side of the road are our neighbors, so make sure to be alert, slow down and move over while passing by work zones.

"It takes a split second to not pay attention, and you can change somebody's life or somebody's family forever." said Susan Surdej, Regional Public Information Officer and engineer for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). "We have co-workers that are out on the roads every single day, and they are working right along live traffic and it's actually very terrifying, because you're not always sure what the drivers is going to do, or the speeds that they are traveling."

Surdej tells us that last year 48 NYSDOT workers were injured while working on the job due to work zone intrusions. In addition, this year will be the second year the state will use cameras with license plate technology to monitor speeds in certain work zones.

"The camera monitors your speed as you drive through the work zone to make sure that people are obeying a lowered speed limit or the posted work zone speed, and if you're not in compliance, a notice of liability will be sent in the mail to the owner of the car," said Surdej. "Last year, over 2,000 units were deployed across New York State between thruway road and DOT roads, and they resulted in 167,000 notices of liability."

In March, NYS expanded the Move Over law, to include that drivers must slow down and move over if it's safe to do so, for any disabled vehicle on the highway.

"Really it's just super important for drivers to look down the road, make sure they are aware of what's coming up and obey the slow down and move over," said Dan Fisher, Dispatch Manager for AAA, "We understand that traffic gets busy sometimes, you might not be able to move over without causing a secondary wreck, but your first action should be just to slow down. Not only does that keep our drivers safe, but it also slows down everybody else behind you to make sure others are aware of what's going on as well."

During National Work Zone Awareness week, and throughout the summer, NYS Police will have Troopers disguised at NYS DOT workers, to help monitor drivers passing by work zones during "Operation Hard Hat".

"They're going to run lazer right on the site, but you're not going to see Troop cars, they're going to be in a different spot, and we're going to pull people over for speeding in those work zones, driving distracted, and primarily putting anyone in serious injury or death in those work zones," said Trooper James O'Callaghan, with New York State Police.

He warns that two work zone tickets can lead to losing your license, but hopes that knowing you're putting workers lives at risk would be the biggest concern of drivers.

"We have the most amount of collision in the nicer summer months. A lot of people know they have to drive cautionary with the winter months, but in the summer months they think nothing's going to happen," said Trooper O'Callaghan. "Sun's out, music's playing, things are going well, visibility is fantastic. But, unfortunately, that's when most of our collisions happen. We have people driving distracted, driving well over the speed limit, not ready or anticipating what's going to happen and when you have that with work zones, the unfortunate event happens where we've had people killed or injured inside those work zones."

Trooper O'Callaghan says a common question they get is if there's a work zone late at night without workers, do you still need to slow down and move over. The answer is yes.

"You need to obey all work zone reduced speeds or lane changes and all the laws that apply in that work zone, regardless if there's workers there or not because you don't know what is on the other side of the cones," O'Callaghan said. "You don't know what has been done to that road way to make it a work zone, so you put yourself at risk if you don't obey that."

Tonight, many New York State landmarks, including Niagara Falls will be lit in orange, in honor of "Go Orange Day" of National Work Zone Safety Week.