Call Boxes Made Accessible to Disabled

For the vast majority of motorists, freeway call boxes are a welcome sight in an emergency, but not for Greg Winterbottom. The wheelchair user couldn’t get to most of them if his life or anyone else’s depended on it.

Berms and guard rails block his path. Some phones are mounted too high to reach. The freeway shoulders at others are so narrow he can’t even get out of his car.

As an Orange County Transportation Authority board member, Winterbottom has made equal access to the highway call-box system one of his priorities. Since September, the agency has been planning to retrofit all the sites so that people with physical disabilities, including the deaf and speech-impaired, can use them. The program, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year, may cost at least $3 million.

“We want to be proactive, ahead of the curve,” said Winterbottom, who was injured in a car accident 35 years ago. “This is our responsibility. We don’t want to wait until we get sued.”

Winterbottom and his colleagues at the Orange County Transportation Authority are aware of what happened in Los Angeles Superior Court a few years ago and don’t want to share the experience.

In that case, four disabled plaintiffs sued Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways. All have roles in operating call boxes in Los Angeles County.

In a May 1999 settlement, the government agencies agreed to spend $11 million to make 4,471 call boxes in the county accessible to the disabled, as well as to the hearing and speech-impaired.

Advocates for the disabled contend that most of 17,000 freeway call boxes in California do not comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal law that requires local governments to provide equal access to public services.

Orange County has about 1,200 call boxes, which are spaced a quarter-mile to a half-mile apart on freeways and toll roads. Each is marked with a blue sign and a bright yellow telephone box. Last year, about 3,000 motorists used them to contact the California Highway Patrol.

When the call-box system was built in the late 1980s, local transportation officials installed them on raised medians and behind berms or guard rails to provide motorists some protection from freeway traffic. At the time, government agencies were under no legal obligation to provide access to the disabled.

While it is unclear how many wheelchair-user motorists there are, the state Department of Motor Vehicles has distributed 92,804 handicapped placards to Orange County residents, according to Ron Owens, a DMV spokesman.

About 8% of the population has a hearing or speech impairment. Some call boxes have “yes” and “no” buttons so speech-impaired travelers can answer basic questions from the operator, such as, “Do you need help?” or “Do you need an officer?” But advocates for the disabled say the buttons are inadequate if the motorist needs to convey more detailed information to the operator.

“People with disabilities are rather vulnerable on the freeway. Their fear level can rise,” said Toni Barrient, president of the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center. “I would really like to see call boxes accessible to everyone, whatever it takes.”

In September, the Orange County Transportation Authority board launched a program to retrofit the county’s call-box system and approved the installation of “call-connected” lights for the hearing-impaired. The lights tell motorists when to tap on the receiver--a signal to the dispatcher that a hearing- or speech-impaired person is on the line. A CHP officer is then sent to the call box.

The board also established a task force to assess the cost and practicality of more advanced options for the hearing-impaired, such as text telephones, or TTYs, which send and receive typed messages.

Similarly, they directed agency staff to estimate the cost of retrofitting call boxes to accommodate wheelchair users. The potential work includes removing berms, curbs, debris and guard rails. Some phones will have to be lowered at some sites, while more pavement may have to be added to accommodate wheelchairs at others.

Agency officials say the cost of retrofitting the system might be $3 million to $3.5 million.

The studies and recommendations are scheduled to go to the board no later than September.

Orange County’s program is part of a growing effort to retrofit county call-box systems around the state. CalSafe, a consortium of representatives from 30 county authorities responsible for freeway safety, has funded a study to assess options for the hearing- and speech-impaired.