City panel may put brakes on truck noise

BONNERS FERRY — Complaints from citizens about the noise trucks make going down the hills into town prompted Mayor David Anderson to recommend forming an ad hoc committee.

Several truck drivers attended the City Council meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 2 to make sure their voices were heard, especially about compression brakes.

“If you drive a truck with a load on, you want to be able to stop,” said truck driver Beloit Mendenhall. “You have to keep the brakes cool, otherwise you’ll be on fire.”

Councilman Rick Alonzo’s intent for the discussion was to prohibit unmuffled trucks in the city limits to reduce noise.

However, most the truckers in attendance said the majority of trucks have mufflers.

Some older trucks which have mufflers are louder than the newer trucks with mufflers, said Mendenhall. Some of the noise comes from truckers shifting with their Jake brakes, Mendenhall said.

“I didn’t want a big expense for the locals,” said councilman Tom Mayo. Truckers at the meeting mentioned repairing or installing a muffler costs around $1,000.

Idaho Code 49-937 requires that every motor vehicle be equipped with a muffler in good working order to prevent excessive or unusual noise and annoying smoke. No person shall modify the exhaust system to amplify or increase the noise above that emitted by the muffler originally installed by the manufacturer.

“This issue came up four years ago,” said Anderson.

“It’s a unique town...at the bottom of two hills and we don’t want safety issues.”

Safety has been an issue in the past when two semi-truck drivers had their brakes fail southbound across the old bridge and they crashed into the Houck Building (present-day museum). No one was injured in the 1980 accident, but in 1982 three people were killed and four more were injured. Of the three fatalities, two were under two-years-old.

“What that accident got us was a sign at the top of the hill,” said Tom Oxford.

The sign informs the distance to town but doesn’t inform of the speed limit at the bottom of the hill. Local truckers know the speed limit, but out-of-town truckers are not aware of the 35 mph speed limit at the bottom.

“You should put pressure on the state for information on top of the hill,” said Oxford. “Otherwise what happened in the ‘80s will happen again.”

Mayor Anderson said signs can be effective, like the ones on the McArthur Lake curve, which drastically reduced the fatalities.

Mayo said the city and county have tried to address the speed limit south of Three-Mile with ITD without success.

Truckers voiced concern that they could slow down in order to not use compression brakes, but then they would back up traffic, which is also a hazard.

“There was never discussion outlawing Jake brakes,” said Mayo, which was a major concern of the truckers.

Anderson said that they will put safety in front of noise and are all in favor of not having another accident.

The ad hoc committee will include both truck drivers and city residents concerned with the noise. The committee will be discussing the issue of truck noise and ways to address the issue.