Disabled Motorists May Obtain Cellular Phones : Service: Ventura County considers passing out portable devices instead of modifying freeway call boxes. They would be limited to 911 calls.

Ventura County may become the first in the state to give portable telephones to physically disabled drivers who cannot easily reach freeway call boxes.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission, required by federal law to make call boxes accessible to drivers with disabilities, voted Friday to buy cellular phones for such drivers to use if their vehicles break down.

The cellular phones, which will cost the commission about $275 each, will only be able to reach 911 unless the user pays extra.

To be eligible for the phones, a motorist must live in Ventura County, have a California driver’s license and a physician’s statement concerning the disability.

Advocates for the disabled said that providing cellular phones is safer and easier than renovating call box areas along freeway sections that are steep or have narrow shoulders.

“That’s the beauty of this cellular phone idea,” said Wendy Whiting, a Ventura resident who uses a wheelchair. “No one who has a disability has to get out of the car.”

Other agencies may follow Ventura’s example as they seek to comply with a federal law that says people with disabilities must have access to transportation services--including call boxes--that are available to the public.

“We’re all slowly coming to the realization that the cellular phone option is the best for safety and accessibility reasons,” said Stephen Finnegan, call box project manager with Los Angeles County’s new Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

However, county officials warned that the cellular phone plan may not pass the federal government’s test. Although the phones would assist drivers who live in Ventura County, disabled motorists from other counties and other states would still lack access to call boxes.

But Finnegan pointed out that a call box with enough level ground around it for a wheelchair may not help if a disabled driver has car trouble farther down the road.

“Breakdowns occur randomly, and rarely right in front of a call box,” he said. “It doesn’t help you if the call box is accessible but you can’t get to it because of limited shoulder space between the call boxes.”