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Resident asks Mono council to quell loud engine brakes

December 15, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

At least one Mono resident is increasingly vexed by transport trucks roaring past her house with loud engine brakes breaking the peace.

In fact, the jackhammer ruckus of a Jake Brake and the speed at which many truck drive on Highway 89 in Mono prompted Violet Hill resident Sara Best to take her concerns to town council.

Council discussed her concerns during its Dec. 14 regular meeting.

“I understand this is Highway 89, a busy trucking and traffic highway,” she wrote in her missive to council. “I have wondered for some years why there couldn’t be a no engine braking sign as there are many houses in our location.”

She said there are babies in her household that have been awaken daily by the loud jackhammer sound of a speeding truck’s engine brake.

“I’m sure I can’t be the only mom in the community with babies not getting uninterrupted sleep,” she said.

Hers is a farming community, she said. And there’s been many near-mishaps on the highway where slow-moving farming equipment and speeding transport trucks have come dangerously close to colliding.

“I have seen some communities along Airport Road and Highway 10 with signage for no engine braking,” Best wrote. “Maybe speed reductions need to be looked at as well.”

Councillor Elaine Capes said she can appreciate Best’s frustration and concern about what’s happening along the thoroughfare in question.

“That is treacherous road,” Capes said. “I used to drive that every day to take my children to school.”

She said such heavy truck traffic will get worse when a gravel pit opens at Highway 89 and Third Line in Mono’s Violet Hill area.

Michael Dunmore, the town’s director of Public Works, said there’s been similar communication from other residents. He said he’ll request that the Ministry of Transportation install signs prohibiting the use of engine brakes along the road.

Dunmore said a traffic study was completed as part of the permit process for a gravel pit. But he’ll need to investigate whether or not that study would need to be updated to support the sign request.

Mayor John Creelman said he’ll broach the issue of a speed limit change in his correspondence with the provincial government.

“I suspect the speeding goes both ways,” Creelman said. “It’s not only vehicles coming down the hill, going west. It’s also eastbound vehicles that pick up a pretty good head of speed towards the intersection of the Third Line and (Highway) 89, as well.”

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