Maine Speeding Laws

Basic Speed Law: A person shall operate a vehicle at a careful and prudent speed not greater than is reasonable and proper having due regard to the traffic, surface and width of the way and of other conditions then existing.  ME Title 29-A, § 2074

Penalty for Exceeding Speed Limit

A first time violator may be:

• fined between $25 and $250, and
• the violator’s license may be suspended 15 days.

Penalty for Reckless Driving

A first time violator may be:

• fined not more than $1000,
• sentenced to jail time of not more than six months, and
• the violator’s license may be suspended between 30 to 180 days

Speed Limits

• 65 MPH on interstates 95 and 295
• 55 MPH on all other insterstaes
• 45 MPH on all other public ways
• 25 MPH in business or residential districts
• 15 MPH when passing a school during recess or when the students are going to or leaving the school

Maine Speeding Laws

Maine has what is known as an “absolute” speed limit law. There is no trick to how this works: If the sign says 40 mph and you drive 41 mph or more, you have violated the law. In other words, you are guilty if you drive over the speed limit. In Maine you may be able to make three possible defenses:

• Attacking the officer’s determination of your speed. To do this you must discover what method the officer used to cite you and then learn about the ways to attack that particular method.
• Claiming an emergency forced you to exceed the speed limit to avoid serious damage or injury to yourself or others.
• Claiming that the officer mistook your car for another car. With so many similar-looking cars, it is possible that a cop could see a speeding car, lose sight of it around a corner, and then wrongly pick out your car farther down the road.

Note that in Maine you can be ticketed for driving at an unsafe speed, even if that speed does not violate the posted limit -- for example, driving exactly at the maximum mph posted limit on the freeway amidst slower and heavy traffic, in a dense fog, or in a driving rainstorm or blizzard.

Point System

An offender's license may be suspended for up to 15 days if they accumulate 12 points within 1 year.  If the offender has had 3 previous suspensions within 3 years, they are subject to a suspension for up to 120 days. The following points are assigned for speeding or speed related offenses:  Exceeding the speed limit by more than 15 but less than 30 MPH-6 points; exceeding the speed limit by less than 15 MPH-4 points; excessive acceleration-4 points; imprudent driving or speeding-4 points; failure to reduce speed on curve-2 points; obstructing the flow of traffic-2 points; speed under the posted minimum-2 points; and, squealing tires-2 points.