On the morning of April 4th, Troop K kicked off National Work Zone Safety Week by staging the first of many selective enforcement details in construction zones on Florida's Turnpike. Turnpike troopers in Miami, West Palm Beach, and Orlando were visible in work zones to the delight of construction workers. Operation Hard Hat is a highly effective enforcement initiative that uses troopers dressed as construction workers who stand on construction equipment and use laser devices to catch speeders in work zones.

Operation Hard Hat has been used with great success by FHP for the past couple of years, and continues to yield excellent results. Recently, in West Palm Beach, Sgt. Tom Kelley put on a hard hat, climbed onto a front end loader provided by Hubbert Construction Company, and clocked speeders with a laser unit. To underscore the dangers of working in a construction zone, sadly, a worker was killed on the very same day as the operation's kick-off while working in the median installing guardrails on the Turnpike north of Orlando. FHP continues to enforce traffic safety in work zones across the state, and Operation Hard Hat is an important method of deterring violators of posted speed limits while protecting the construction zone workers and the motoring public.