CONSUMERS : AAA Driving to Better Aid the Stranded

Six months after Judy Miller and four dozen prominent Southern California women formally asked the Automobile Club of Southern California to train all its operators to put member safety first, the automobile club has begun to take their suggestions seriously, especially since the Los Angeles City Council and state Assembly also have taken up the cause.

Assemblyman Richard Katz has scheduled a Sept. 28 public hearing to consider whether state legislation is needed to ensure the quality and safety of emergency road services offered by the Automobile Club of Southern California, an AAA affiliate, and other similar groups.

“We wanted to see if there was a need for statewide laws that set out that the top priority needs to be the safety of the motorist, instead of the convenience of tow truck operators or drivers,” Katz explained.

He and other government officials have been prodded into action after learning of the tragedy that befell Miller’s daughter, Colleen, late one evening in November, 1984, when her car broke down on a deserted stretch of Wilshire Boulevard and she called AAA for help.

While waiting for auto club help to arrive, Colleen, then 18, wanted to stay inside her 1980 Pontiac Phoenix. But the AAA operator insisted that she could not return to her vehicle, which was 200 feet away, and that she had to stand by the pay phone so the auto club worker could find her, she said.

Fifteen minutes later, Colleen was abducted and raped at gunpoint.

Filed Lawsuit

Four years later, she filed a $2-million, negligence lawsuit against the Automobile Club of Southern California, which the parties settled out of court this summer.

But the safety of club patrons remains a concern for Miller’s mother--who agonized, then made public her daughter’s story not long ago--and for fellow activist Julie Wright, who has helped lead a coalition of women determined to prevent such a crime from happening again.

Wright said the club’s response to consumer concerns, and even an outline of proposed AAA policy changes, was sluggish until City Council members John Ferraro and Joy Picus stepped in.

Ferraro, for example, then brought the issue to the attention of Katz, who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee. “What we are trying to do is get the auto club to keep uppermost in its mind the safety of its members,” Ferraro said.

Millions of Calls

The club has, indeed, been working toward that goal, said AAA spokesman Stephen Lenzi. He said that the Automobile Club, which handles an estimated 3 million service calls annually, had met with officials of the Los Angeles police, fire and sheriff’s departments, as well as the California Highway Patrol, to discuss how best to protect AAA’s 3-million-plus members.

By late July, the auto club had agreed to:

-- Increase the training for AAA operators answering club members’ emergency road calls. AAA now will ensure that its members understand they do not need to wait for emergency service in any location that they consider unsafe.

-- Meet with major Southern California law enforcement agencies for guidance on when to call authorities to assist AAA members who are stranded on the road.

-- Tighten oversight on performance of independent contract stations and scrutinize behavior of individual rescue unit drivers.

-- Evaluate the fire department’s computerized dispatch procedure and investigate whether there is a need to install recording devices on phone lines used to handle emergency road service calls.

-- Upgrade its quality-check programs to better monitor whether its members are satisfied with the emergency road service they receive.

The proposed policies should be adopted not just by the Automobile Club of Southern California but also by other similar services, such as the National Auto Club, Allstate Motor Club and the Montgomery Ward Auto Club, members of the Los Angeles City Council said at a recent meeting. They also encouraged the highway patrol, the city police and county sheriff’s office to do all they can on the issue.

Ferraro’s office said that those who provide emergency road service countywide have been cooperative on the issue, which will be discussed further at the Sept. 28 hearing, whose site and time have not been set.

Wright said proponents “want to be fair” to all parties involved but that laws may be needed to ensure that the public can “look to emergency road service providers as protectors. We are looking at the kinds of legislation that will help promote public safety and still be reasonable. . . .”

She said she also hopes that California can provide a road safety model that is emulated nationwide.