ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)--With construction season about to be underway, the New York State Thruway Authority and Department of Transportation are hoping that the Automatic Work Zone Speed Enforcement Pilot Program becomes permanent. "In the not quite two years that this program has been in existenc e, we have seen driver behavior change," said Frank Hoare, Executive Director of the New York Thruway Authority. "The data supports it. We have seen people slow down and an important element of this program calls for fees generated from the violations to go right into safety programs."  NY DOT issues more than 44,000 citations for speeding in work zones in Monroe County The pilot program on the Thruway alone has caught over 143,000 violations. "There has been no recorded worker injuries or fatalities in areas where cameras have been deployed. That to me is the full measure of the success of this program," said Marie Therese Dominguez, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation. The state’s transportation leaders are calling on the legislature to make the program permanent through the state budget, something the governor has proposed. Another proposal they’d like to see included is legislation to strengthen penalties for assaulting highway workers.  "What we are seeing is an increase in the number of assaults over the last five years for transportation workers," explained Dominguez. "People are literally getting out of their cars, hitting, kicking, throwing hot coffee, hurling insults at our highway." Maintenance workers and its just a dangerous condition and you need to stop it.  According to DOT, if the legislation is passed, assaulting a highway worker would become a class D felony with a sentence of up to seven years. The final state budget is due April 1st. ...read more read less