Speeding on Maine’s highways can be costly. A ticket for going 80 mph will cost $172.

CARMEL – Anyone who’s driven Interstate 95 at the posted 65 mph speed limit knows the feeling of standing still while speeders whiz past.

Maine state troopers have been cracking down on scofflaws with speed details that typically involve an overhead plane and three to four troopers in cruisers along the highway.

Pilot Wayne Ireland radioed troopers positioned along I-95 on Thursday. “You’re going to want this one – 103,” he said.

Troopers, who began their speed details in earnest last September, are no longer surprised to see vehicles traveling faster than 100 mph on the state’s busiest highway.

“We have no shortage of speeders,” said Trooper Thomas Fiske, who stopped the driver going 103 mph. “They’re so fast that we have to pick and choose and only take the ones going the fastest.

“Most people just say, ‘Yup, you got me,”‘ he said. “They are just willing to take a chance they won’t get stopped.”

Trooper Marc Poulin said most of the 20 or so drivers he stopped Thursday were unaware of the plane overhead.

“They come up over a hill and see us, and that is probably the first time they realize a detail is in place,” Poulin said. “Meanwhile, the plane has already clocked them.”

Excessive speed is a factor in 40 percent of fatal accidents, said Gerry Audibert, safety management coordinator in the Maine Department of Transportation in Augusta.

Speeding on Maine’s highways can be costly.

A ticket for going 80 mph will cost $172.

In a four-hour speed detail, troopers can write up to 80 summonses totaling fines of more than $10,000.

Forty-three cars were stopped in a four-hour span on Thursday.

Drivers have the right to contest the tickets in court but few pursue that option, said Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety.

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