ATHOL – At Athol’s fall Town Meeting, voters quickly approved each of the first 11 articles on the warrant with little or no comment. In fact, all of those articles, including one calling for the expenditure of $425,000 for a new ambulance for the Fire Department, were approved by unanimous, or near unanimous, votes.
The final article on the warrant, however, brought the meeting, which appeared headed to a speedy conclusion, to a screeching halt.
Article 12, submitted to the warrant via citizen petition, and approved by voters, called for a prohibition on the use of engine brakes – or jake brakes – within town limits. Violators would be subject to a fine of $250. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles would be exempt from the ban. Signs declaring the ban would be posted on roads entering the town. The motion to amend the town’s bylaws in order to accommodate the prohibition was made by Partridgeville Road resident William Buttitta, who organized the petition drive.
“For at least the past few years,” said Buttitta, “our road has been used as the primary route for commercial dump trucks transporting materials out of town. The road being used is not a highway or main street, it is a residential road with single family homes.
“During the downslope of this road, the majority of dump trucks choose to use a braking system specific to large commercial vehicles known as jake braking, compression release brake, or engine braking. This brake helps trucks slow down without wearing out the service brakes …The resulting noise is extremely loud and disruptive. On a rural residential road, it is unreasonably loud and disruptive.”
Buttitta said the sound of trucks employing engine brakes begins shortly before 7 a.m. on weekdays and continues throughout the course of the day. He then ticked off a list of more than a dozen Massachusetts communities that have enacted similar bans.
Town Counsel John Barrett opined that it is within the town’s right to institute a ban on use of the brakes but noted that some communities have written their bylaws to allow for use of engine brakes solely in the case of emergencies. Final approval of any bylaw enacted by the town, he pointed out, is up to the state Office of the Attorney General.
Police Chief Craig Lundgren told the gathering he was initially concerned about the proposed bylaw, stating, “In my view, an emergency system for a tractor trailer being able to slow down in time is a safety feature. To have a bylaw that prohibits that safety feature, I was really concerned about.”
Then, said Lundgren, he parked his cruiser on Partridgeville Road on a couple of occasions for relatively short periods of time.
“And it’s truck after truck after truck hitting this jake brake, and it is so loud. In my opinion, when you’re going down a very steep decline and you really need to use this engine system to slow your truck down, then I totally agree with it. But there are some houses down in that area at the end of Partridgeville Road who should not have to listen to this all day long, and it is all day long.”
The chief went on to say that simply posting signs noting that use of the brakes could result in a hefty fine could discourage many truckers from using them.
Tom Hart, of Hapgood Street, said residents there have the same problem as those on Partridgeville Road.
“They sent me home to work when COVID happened,” he said, “and I’ve been listening to it for three years. I can’t concentrate in my office at home because of all the noise. All day long these trucks are going down and up the road making all kinds of racket. I’d say 80 percent of those going down don’t make much noise at all. It’s some hot-doggers, some guys that want to hear themselves who are making all this racket. I think this gives the police another tool.”
Pete Lyman, owner of Lyman Excavating, urged defeat of the article.
“I’ve got four dump trucks,” he explained, “and they all came equipped with jake brakes. If I’m coming in from Phillipston, and I’m coming down the hill and I can’t use my Jake Brake …by the time I get to Starretts my brakes are so hot I can’t stop. I’ve got to keep my brakes cooled down. It’s a braking system that helps the pedal brake.
“I think the bigger issue is the trucks with loud exhausts and the guys who drive too fast, and we’ve already got rules for that, laws for that. Let’s enforce those laws; don’t make more,” he said.
An amendment to the original motion was offered from the floor by Selectboard Chair Alan Dodge stating that the signs to be posted would read: “Attention truckers, except in case of emergency, use of engine brakes in town limits prohibited. Punishable by fine.”
After a half-hour of discussion, the proposed article, as amended, was approved on a vote of 47-18.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.