Idea for Freeway Call Boxes OKd; Funding Sought

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to endorse the concept of an emergency freeway call box system. The board also will ask the state to increase vehicle registration fees countywide by as much as $1 to pay for the system.

The board voted unanimously to ask the state Legislature for a $3-million loan to install the 930-phone system to help motorists in trouble on county freeways.

The first cellular antenna tower, which is necessary for a radio telephone call box system, will be installed in San Diego County for use by owners of in-car telephones by early August, said Art Madrid, director of governmental relations for Pacific Bell.

The emergency call box system to serve motorists in the metropolitan San Diego area would use the same tower and could be available as early as October if funding for the call boxes is found, Madrid said. A separate system for the eastern part of San Diego County could be installed within two years, he said.

Attention focused on the call box issue in November, when 22-year-old University of San Diego honor student Anne Catherine Swanke was abducted and killed when she returned to her stalled car with a can of gasoline.

Two months later, a 27-year-old woman, stranded when her car broke down on Interstate 5, said she waited for help for hours while police, sheriff’s and California Highway Patrol cruisers passed without stopping. When the woman finally accepted a ride from a passer-by, she was raped at gunpoint, she said.

The board directed the Public Works Department to draft legislation to amend a bill introduced in March by State Sen. William Craven (R-Oceanside). Craven’s bill would provide $2 million in state general funds to install a call box system in San Diego County.

Mary Jo Martin, an aide to Craven, said it is unlikely that Gov. George Deukmejian would sign the bill, because other counties then would seek state money to install call box systems for their freeways.

County Public Works Director R.J. Massman said that a freeway call box system could help stranded motorists. But, because of the shortage of funds in county coffers, money for the system must come from other sources.

“If it (the call box system) doesn’t come with money, it’s up against some awfully tough competition,” Massman said, adding that any reduction in road maintenance funds to raise money for the call boxes would harm the county’s road network.

Ventura, Orange and Los Angeles counties are watching to see if San Diego County obtains money from the state for its system, Massman said. “The more counties that look for money,” he said, “the less likely it is that anyone will get any.”

However, Martin said the county probably could get a loan from the state if the county can come up with a local financing plan to repay it.

“We need to be creative with our options,” she said. “We need to be pragmatic and look at those things that will actually get through the Legislature.”

If the county increases vehicle licensing and registration fees, the funds would be collected by the state and returned to the county or some other local agency, according to a report given to the supervisors. Funds collected from vehicle registration would be used to repay the state, Massman said.

San Diego County has about 2.1 million registered vehicles, Massman said. Supervisor George F. Bailey asked that any increase in vehicle registration not exceed $1.

The county is also studying the possibility of collecting fees from users of the call box system, and from towing companies dispatched to assist stranded motorists, the report said. But the report pointed out that collecting fees from motorists who use the system could be difficult.

The county Public Works Department will present its legislation to the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee next Thursday, Massman said, after which the proposal will go to Craven’s office. Craven’s bill is scheduled to go before the Senate Transportation Committee on April 30.

A cellular radio telephone operates by dividing the service area into small hexagonal cells, each with its own low-powered transmitter, the report said. Signals go from the call boxes to the transmitter, then into the conventional phone system. The emergency call boxes would be placed at half-mile intervals along the 283 miles of county freeways.