Freeway Help Is On Line

Motorists on the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) through Irvine last Thursday may have missed it, but freeway history was made that day when the county’s first freeway emergency telephone was connected at Yale Avenue. Starting soon, about 1,000 call boxes will be installed on both sides of the county’s 137 miles of freeway.

The call boxes were a long time coming. They were originally considered by Orange County officials in the 1960s, when Los Angeles became the first and only county in the state to install them, but funding couldn’t be worked out. Thanks to the efforts of Orange County Transportation Commissioner Clarice Blamer, Supervisor Harriett Wieder and State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), the emergency system, which is connected directly to the California Highway Patrol dispatch center in Santa Ana, is finally becoming a reality. For the thousands of motorists who get stranded each month on county freeways, the call boxes can’t be in place soon enough.