White County, AR Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

04, adopted by Ordinance 2012-004, targets the noise created by engine brakes, defined in the ordinance as a hydraulically operated device that operates a power reducing diesel engine into a power absorbing retarding mechanism that produces a noise that is loud and excessive. The Quorum Court reviewed the county's traffic and noise control ordinances and found that engine brakes were causing excessive noise levels in certain areas of the county. It singled out one stretch, described in the ordinance as the area of State Highway 36 running from the western edge of the Searcy city limits westward to Pine Mountain Road, also known as the bottom of Joy Mountain, and found that this stretch has no severe grades or sharp curves that would make engine braking necessary.

Based on that finding, the Quorum Court concluded that using engine brakes on that stretch is unnecessary and unjustified, and it added a traffic-control provision prohibiting the practice there for the purpose of limiting unnecessary noise. The ban is geographically narrow: it reaches only that named segment of State Highway 36, not every county road or the rest of unincorporated White County, so a truck driver using an engine brake elsewhere on county roads is not reached by this section. The Sheriff's Office enforces the ban as part of its traffic-control duties.