TURNER – By the time the driver in the silver sedan saw them, it was too late. He was clocked doing 63 in a 45-mph zone, the number locked into a high-tech device that uses a laser beam to track speed.
The driver was one of about 80 who saw blue lights flashing in their rearview mirrors along a stretch of Route 4 Thursday morning.
About half were issued summonses for speeding, said Maine State Police Sgt. Kevin Donovan, who was in charge of the eight troopers working the special 8 a.m.-to-noon safety detail.
Those who were summoned will be fined up to $185, said Trooper Eric Paquette, one of four troopers regularly patrolling Androscoggin County.
Many of those who were ticketed were “fairly upset,” Paquette said. “One lady said she paid a lot of state taxes and didn’t deserve a ticket.”
He added that there were a few sarcastic “Merry Christmases” from drivers.
Not everyone was upset, though.
More than a couple of drivers honked their horns and waved to troopers as they waited to stop the next speeder or were busy writing up a summons.
Donovan said two business owners also made a point of coming up to him to thank him for having the troopers there.
One, Steve Cornelio, the owner and publisher of Turner Publications, offered troopers the use of his lawn if need be so they could set up their laser checkpoint.
“It’s a dangerous stretch of road,” said Cornelio. “I appreciate (that) they’re looking out for us.”
His business is at the corner of Fern Street and Route 4, just west of the Big Apple gas station and store. He said that pulling onto the highway between 4 and 6 p.m. can be scary.
“You have people coming through here pretty fast, 55 to 70 miles per hour,” he said, adding that that makes merging into traffic a challenge.
Cornelio has seen a fair share of accidents in the short commercial zone that runs from the Chick-a-dee Restaurant to his place and Twitchell’s Airport, he said.
Maine State Police began their special effort by setting up near Northland Plaza, Donovan said. About half of the tickets issued Thursday morning came from that portion of the detail. After a couple of hours there, troopers moved a few miles down the road, closer to the Auburn line, where another 40 speeders were told to slow down.
The effort is part of a plan announced earlier this month by police and the Maine Department of Transportation to slow traffic on Route 4 and curb its accident rate. That section of road is among the deadliest in the state.
Signs went up about 10 days ago urging motorists to turn on their headlights for safety, even during daylight hours. That initiative is designed to help reduce the number of head-on crashes.
And the MDOT said it’s considering putting in turning lanes along some areas of the highway, something that could reduce the rate of rear-end collisions.
Donovan said Thursday’s detail won’t be the only one along Route 4.
“We’ll be back Saturday,” he said, and likely, many more times after that.
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