AUGUSTA — As part of the summer speed reduction awareness and high-visibility enforcement campaign, the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety is working in conjunction with the other New England Highway Safety Offices, in a combined effort to slow drivers down. The New England Drive to Save Lives campaign calls on all drivers to recognize speeding as an unnecessary and aggressive driving behavior that endangers all road users.

Communities across America are affected every year by fatalities that occur in speeding-related crashes. In 2024, there were 11,288 speed-related traffic fatalities, accounting for 29% of all traffic fatalities. Young drivers have a higher chance of being involved in speeding-related crashes. In 2024, 39% of male drivers and 20% of female drivers in the 15- to 20-year-old age group involved in fatal traffic crashes, speeding was a factor.

Between July 6th and the 31st, from Aroostook County to York County, more than 47 law enforcement agencies will continue to conduct high-visibility speed enforcement to save lives and reduce speeding and aggressive driving. Law enforcement will be out reminding drivers to slow down and drive with care. Drivers should plan to leave sooner to allow more time to arrive
without rushing. Maine Highway Safety Director Lauren Stewart says, “The seconds that you save by speeding are not significant enough to risk your safety or that of anyone sharing the road with you. Crashes are significantly more dangerous, resulting in death or serious injury when speeding is involved. Everyone wants to arrive at their destination safely.”

From Maine to Connecticut, New England is reminding drivers to Drive to Save Lives across the region. Whether you’re vacationing in another state or having a staycation, please slow down and take your time getting to your destination this summer.

Chief Matt Cummings of the Fort Fairfield Police Department says, “Keeping Maine safe isn’t just a job for law enforcement; it’s a shared commitment across our entire community. When you slow down on our local roads, you aren’t just following the law; you are actively protecting your neighbors, our children, and the character of our town. Let’s work together to keep our streets safe for everyone.”

Speeding is an aggressive and deadly behavior. It reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around another vehicle, a pedestrian, hazardous objects, or an unexpected curve. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), local roads are more dangerous than highways for speeders. It’s a common misconception that speeding is an interstate-related issue: In fact, in 2024, 87% of all speeding-related traffic fatalities in the United States occurred on routes other than interstates.

“Every mile per hour matters. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to react, increases stopping distance, and turns a preventable crash into a deadly one. As Maine’s roads become busier during the summer months, we urge drivers to slow down, stay alert and help ensure everyone arrives safely to their destinations,” says Sgt. Josh Stewart of the Kittery Police Department.

The Maine Bureau of Highway Safety is reminding drivers to Drive to Save Lives this month. Spend your time on the way to your destination, enjoying all of the beauty New England has to offer, not speeding through it. From the lighthouses across Maine’s coastline, New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, Vermont’s Moss Glen Falls, Massachusetts’s Fenway Park, a ferry ride from Point Judith in Rhode Island, to Connecticut’s Gillette Castle State Park, slow down and enjoy your drive.

PORTLAND, Maine — After a week of political chaos, Maine voters are now left grappling with what comes next — with control of the U.S. Senate on the line. 

“To be kind of let down like that, it feels like I almost got ripped off, you know?” Steve Arsenault, a voter from Rockland, Maine, told MS NOW. 

On Wednesday, Democrat Graham Platner — a populist outsider who won his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate just last month despite many controversies, including an old tattoo of Nazi symbolism — announced he would suspend his campaign. 

Earlier in the week, Platner — who has been mired in a variety of scandals since launching his campaign in 2025 — was accused of rape by an ex-girlfriend in a new story published by Politico. Platner denied the allegations. 

With the party now racing to find his replacement in a process set to play out over the next two weeks, many Democratic voters told MS NOW they’d love to see the new candidate espouse Platner’s anti-establishment, populist and at times pugilistic style. But minus the scandal.

And in a race that is a cornerstone of the Democratic Party’s ambitions to win back control of the Senate in the fall’s midterm elections, those voters want the new candidate to be a change agent 

“I saw Platner as an opportunity to shake things up, to introduce new voices to the party — particularly younger voices,” Francis Weld of Portland told MS NOW. “I hope that we can find someone who continues that.”

“We want change,” Weld continued. “We need to do things differently if we want to be effective.”

“I want to see him,” Daniel Deis of Portland said, adding, “We need him — but someone with a clean bill of health.”

And Linda Holtslander of Peaks Island told MS NOW she wants Platner’s replacement to have  “the platform that he was putting forth to the voters in this state” but “without the baggage.”

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Democrats are poised to pick their new flag bearer to take on longtime Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in a quickly organized convention scheduled for July 25 in Bangor, Maine. More than 600 delegates will vote, winnowing the field of candidates in successive rounds of voting until they have a new nominee. 

Already, several Mainers have announced they want to be considered — including the former president of the Maine Senate, a former state health official, the current Maine Secretary of State, and a brewer, among others. 

Some are already making not-so-subtle overtures at Platner’s populist message. 

In his paperwork announcing his run for the Senate, Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote that “the passion, energy and urgency that Graham Platner’s supporters brought to this race” will “have a real and important place in this campaign.” 

And Troy Jackson, a former state lawmaker who has already secured the backing of dozens of current and former local officials plus the Maine AFL-CIO, in a social media post claimed to have spent his “whole life” fighting on behalf of a “powerful movement of working class people in the state of Maine.”

“I’m sure as hell not backing down now, when this fight is needed most,” he said.

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One major lingering question is whether Platner’s most ardent supporters will accept the nominee selected through this special process.