AUGUSTA (AP) – Law enforcement officials are looking at ways to get extreme speeders to slow down on Maine roads.

Last year, police wrote 1,662 tickets to motorists for speeding 30 mph or more over the posted speed limit, according to the Maine Judicial Information System. That’s a 23 percent increase over the number of tickets issued in 2001 for going 30 mph or more over the limit.

It’s not unusual for troopers to be stopping motorists going 30, 40 or even 50 miles an hour over the speed limit on Interstate 95, said Col. Craig Poulin, chief of the Maine State Police.

“We have had people stopped going well over 100 miles an hour, and it is becoming more frequent,” he said.

Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara called the speeds reached by some motorists “obscene.” He said there is money in the budget for state police to increase the number of aircraft speed details, which he said are effective in catching extreme speeders.

“There are a shockingly high number of motorists in Maine that are going way in excess of the posted speed limits,” he told lawmakers during a budget hearing earlier this month. “This will enhance the ability of the department to monitor our highways and make them safer.”

For the last year, state police have not had a pilot for its second aircraft because the trooper had been called to military duty and was serving in the Middle East. Poulin said speed details that combine aircraft with troopers on the highway are very successful.

Evert Fowle, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties and president of the Maine Prosecutors Association, said the state should consider raising fines to $500 or more for speeding more than 30 mph over the speed limit. The average fine for speeding in excess of 30 mph over the limit was $327 in 2004, up from $225 in 2001.

“The egregious offenses, they should really be whacked hard,” Fowle said. “Why shouldn’t somebody going 96 miles an hour on the interstate get hit with a $500 fine, or going 86 on a two-lane road marked at 55 get a $500 fine?”

Rep. Patricia Blanchette, D-Bangor, said higher fines should be explored to deter extreme speeding, not raise money for the budget.

“People think we want to balance the budget on speeders, it’s not that,” said Blanchette, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. “Speed kills.”