American Pie singer McLean in speeding fine

American Pie singer Don McLean has been fined $400 for driving his Chrysler too fast through a school zone.

McLean’s lawyer says he was driving 43mph in an area of Maine that has a limit of 15mph when school zone warning lights are flashing and 45mph when they are not.

He argued that the lights were off, but police said in Rockland District Court that they were on.

A judge lowered the fine from $515 to $400, and McLean immediately paid up.

McLean lives in nearby Camden, along Maine’s coast. He burst into popularity in 1971 with his hit 'American Pie', about the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a plane crash on February 3 1959 – 'The Day the Music Died'.