Emergency Call Boxes Are Finally Starting to Crop Up on Freeways

The first elements of an emergency telephone system are appearing on San Diego County freeways, nearly four years after a college student was abducted and killed after her car stalled, and another woman was raped at gunpoint when she accepted a ride along Interstate 5 after her car broke down.

Stretches of California 52, Interstate 8 and Interstate 5 now bear signs of the much-delayed freeway call-box system. Slim poles 5 to 6 feet tall stand at half-mile intervals on urban freeways and at 1-mile intervals on rural highways. For now, the identifying signs are covered in plastic.

“People can now see the concrete pads (foundations), poles and the signs on some parts of the county’s freeway system,” said county inspector John Cousiono. “The contractors are working on that portion of the project, but we don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking the system is ready for use. The solar reflectors which transmit the signals for the system still have to be put in.”

According to Roger Walsh, deputy director of the San Diego Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies (SAFE), the first call boxes are expected to be in operation about Sept. 2.

“The boxes along Highway 52 are set to be the first to be completely installed, but they--like all of the phones in the system--will have to undergo a seven-day testing period before people will be able to use them,” Walsh said.

The $5.3-million call box system is being paid for by county residents through an annual $1 surcharge on vehicle registration fees. Collection of the surcharge, which Walsh said is expected to generate about $1.5 million a year, began in 1987 after its approval by the state Senate in June, 1985.

Walsh said it will take the county about 10 years to pay for the project, which is being financed through the contractor. Annual operation costs are running about $750,000, he said.

Installation of the phone system has been stymied by legal delays over the past three years.

SAFE, created by state legislation to oversee the planning of the system, awarded the initial contract last summer to Anaheim-based Comarco Inc., but Cubic Corp., a San Diego-based firm, challenged the decision.

In its challenge, Cubic charged that SAFE violated competitive-bid procedures when it chose Comarco, which bid about $500,000 more than Cubic to install the system. A Superior Court judge nullified the Comarco contract and ordered SAFE to award the project to the lowest responsible bidder.

The agency appealed that decision based on the difference in the amount of experience between the two companies, and the 4th District Court of Appeal sided with SAFE, saying competitive bidding was not necessary for the project.

In March, SAFE voted to solicit new bids after it was forced to scrap plans to reapprove the Comarco contract. The company revealed at the last minute that it was involved in a since-resolved patent dispute.

In June, SAFE awarded the contract to Cellular Communications Corp. of Anaheim, a subcontractor to Comarco. Cellular’s bid was about $120,000 less than that of Cubic., but Walsh said the price difference was “not a decisive factor” in the selection. Rather it was Cellular’s previous experience in the installation and maintenance of similar call boxes, its projected timetable and the general design of its equipment, he said.

The contract calls for the 883-phone system to be completed by Jan. 31, according to Roger Thielicke, SAFE project manager.

Attention was first drawn to the absence of such an emergency phone system in November, 1984, after Anne Catherine Swanke, a 22-year-old honor student at the University of San Diego, was abducted and killed upon returning to her car after running out of gas in La Mesa.

Two months later, a 27-year-old woman, stranded after her car broke down on I-5, waited for help for hours while police, sheriff’s and California Highway Patrol cruisers passed without stopping.

When she finally accepted a ride from a passer-by, she said, she was raped at gunpoint.