Countywide : Officials Move to Get Call Boxes on Freeways

A 16-year effort to install emergency telephones on Orange County’s 135 miles of freeways is being revived because officials think they have found a way to pay for the $3-million system.

The Orange County Transportation Commission plans to tap the $1 that counties can add to vehicle registration fees. There are about 1.7-million registered vehicles in the county, according to state officials.

Clarice Blamer and Harriett Wieder, both members of the Orange County Transportation Commission, are scheduled Monday to ask the panel to prepare a plan for getting the telephones. Commission officials said quick approval is expected.

Legislation authorizing the $1 assessment will take effect Jan. 1 and calls for creation of a special Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies (SAFE) in each county to manage call box networks.

In a Nov. 14 letter commission Chairman James Roosevelt, Blamer and Wieder noted that Los Angeles County has had an emergency call box network for more than 20 years.

“Orange County freeways do not have a call box network, despite a number of unsuccessful efforts to make such a system a reality,” the letter stated. “All of the efforts aimed at developing a local call box network on the state highway system have stalled because of difficulties with technology or methods of financing the system.”