Breaker breaker to all truckers who are westbound and down, the City of Vidalia is cracking down on all those who are Jake braking on the Mississippi River Bridge.

At last Tuesday’s Board of Alderman meeting, Police Chief Billy Hammers said his officers will start ticketing truck drivers who are applying their Jake brakes to slow down when entering Vidalia.

A Jake brake, or engine brake, is a braking system used primarily on semi-trucks or other large vehicles that modifies engine valve operation to use engine compression to slow the vehicle.

The use of a Jake brake produces a sound similar to a jackhammer but about 10-20 times louder.

Mayor Hyram Copeland said the city was fed up with truckers who are Jake braking.

“We’re not going to tolerate it any longer and we’re going to start issuing tickets to these 18-wheeler drivers coming off the bridge,” he said. “They don’t have to do that.”

Wednesday, Copeland said he has received calls from Vidalia residents, living near the bridge, complaining about he noise.

Fred Falkenheiner lives on 14 Concordia Ave., and said the noise coming off the bridge has been a problem for as long as he has lived there.

Falkenheiner, 68, has lived at the residence all his life.

“The major issue is just the noise,” Falkenheiner said. “It disturbs us, to a certain degree, to get to sleep.”

Although Falkenheiner said he is used to the sound, it poses a problem should he ever decide to sell his property.

“I’ve been living here my whole life but I know if I were to put my house on the market it would affect the value of it,” he said.

Bill McDonough, 66, said he too is tired of the noise coming off the bridge.

“It would matter if I were 16 or 66, it’s everywhere,” he said. “The boom boxes and the Jake brakes are just driving me crazy.”

McDonough also lives on Concordia Avenue.

Jake Woods, 38, is the safety director for Jordan Carriers, a local trucking company in Natchez.

Woods, a former truck driver, said there was no reason for truck drivers to use Jake brakes in the Miss-Lou.

“In this territory, no,” he said. “Jake brakes are designed for mountains.”

Woods said truck drivers applying their Jake brakes in the city limits were doing it because they enjoy the noise it makes.

“They’re just doing it to do it,” he said.

Doug Jordan, chief financial officer for Jordan Carriers said it is against his company’s policy for their drivers to use Jake brakes within city limits.

“There’s no point to even use Jake brakes around here,” he said. “I do not want our drivers to use Jake brakes in city travel. It’s just for use in mountainous terrain only.”

Wednesday, Hammers said truckers use Jake brakes just to hear their engines.

“The excuse truckers use is to slow down off the bridge, but that doesn’t make sense,” Hammers said. “Because they could just use their brakes and that just means they’re going too fast anyway.”

Hammers said he is researching to see if the city has an ordinance in place against engine braking.

“If we don’t I’m going to go before the mayor and the board and ask to adopt an ordinance,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair that we write tickets to normal people with normal vehicles and then they (truck drivers) come through here and do that just to hear their pipes and get away with it.”