Countywide : Trails Could Gain a New Sight: Call Boxes
If state funding comes through, officials with the county’s Department of Harbors, Beaches and Parks hope to begin placing emergency call boxes along some local hiking trails.
“The emergency response system will make hikers and equestrians more comfortable using the more isolated areas of the county trails,” said Richard Huffnagle, a supervising ranger with the parks department.
Huffnagle said the $45,000 in state trail enhancement funds needed for 15 call boxes should be approved within months.
Under the one-year pilot program, yellow emergency call boxes that automatically dial 911 when the door is opened would be set up along the Santa Ana River trail and in the Whiting Ranch and Aliso/Wood Canyons regional parks.
The boxes would contain cellular phones that would ring through to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Huffnagle said he would like to see the boxes placed eventually in Ronald W. Caspers Regional Park, in the Anaheim Hills trail area and at beaches in Laguna Beach.
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