The county board of supervisors wants more information before pursuing an ordinance against the engine brakes commonly called “jake brakes.”
Shane Olson, who lives just north of the stop sign for southbound traffic on County Road P-29 at Highway 4 one mile south of the “old brick school” in Dawson Township, proposed such an ordinance at the supervisors’ June 22 meeting.
He told the supervisors that between four and a dozen trucks every night use unmuffled engine brakes as the approach the stop sign, sometimes so loud the bed vibrates. He reported the noise is loud enough to wake a neighbor who wears hearing aids during the day. She lives 300 yards away from the road.
Olson has proactively sought a remedy. He notes company names and telephone numbers on the cabs of offenders and calls the company. Some of the owners have talked with their drivers and they quit using their jake brakes at that corner.
Olson posted his own sign requesting that jake brakes not be used. He said that helped until someone stole it. He has spoken to the Iowa Department of Transportation and was told there could be no enforcement without a county ordinance prohibiting the brakes. Olson has researched and found many Iowa counties that have such an ordinance.
He estimated 90 percent of the truck traffic past his house is grain trucks hauling grain from Highway 20 to get to Highway 30. He looks for that to increase.
“I’m asking for your help that you do something. It’s really affecting the quality of our life and our sleep at night,” Olson said.
“We’re not against having an ordinance. The problem is enforcement. Even if you have an ordinance, it’s going to be difficult to enforce,” supervisor Guy Richardson said. Olson suggested that the ordinance would work as a deterrent when truckers heard DOT enforcement officers were in the area.
Engineer Wade Weiss clarified that the concern was unmuffled engine brakes, not all engine brakes.
The supervisors agreed that unmuffled engine brakes should be prohibited at that particular intersection but they disagreed on how to do it. Guy Richardson favors a county-wide ordinance, while John Muir and Mick Burkett favor designating intersections. According to Burkett, most farmers have unmuffled engine brakes on their farm trucks. “We’re telling people they can’t use their trucks,” Burkett said.
Sheriff Steve Haupert said enforcement would be targeted at over-the-road truckers who should have better equipment.
Iowa Code already requires mufflers on all vehicles, Olson and sheriff Steve Haupert both said. However, they were unsure if that applied only to exhaust or also to braking devices.
The supervisors plan to get input from a DOT enforcement officer about the need for a local ordinance, in light of the muffler requirement in the state Code, before moving forward.
