WAUKEE, Iowa — The Iowa State Patrol is trying to crack down on the number of speeders in the state.

Last year they wrote more than 1,100 tickets for people driving more than 100 miles per hour, with Troopers writing 139 of those tickets in July alone.

Last year in January, the top speed troopers wrote a ticket for was 164 miles per hour. Troopers also wrote tickets for at least 150 miles per hour in at least five months last year.

The Iowa State Patrol says the most dangerous parts of people going those speeds are the other drivers not expecting someone to be driving that speed. If someone is merging lanes at excessive speeds it can catch other drivers off guard and turn into crashes that have serious consequences.

“We’re not talking 100, 100, 102, we’re repeatedly seeing people going 120, 130, 140 miles an hour out here on our roadways. And that is completely uncalled for. And those are speeds that we as law enforcement, we don’t even go those speeds typically at emergency situations because we know how dangerous that is,” said Sgt. Alex Dinkla, Public Information Officer of the Iowa State Patrol.

Sgt. Dinkla said, “We see our professional racecar drivers go through years of training to perfect that craft, of being able to go those speeds and not only go those speeds but be able to react in an emergency situation.”

He says that the Iowa State Patrol often targets places with a combination of high volume and a high amount of speeders. Last year they enacted six different traffic corridors where they saw a significant number of crashes.