Upgrade of Freeway Call Boxes Urged

The Los Angeles County Criminal Justice Coordination Committee has concluded that the county’s 20-year emergency freeway call box system, once a pioneer of its kind, should be upgraded and perhaps replaced.

The problems were tallied during an informal survey on portions of the Santa Ana, Pomona and San Gabriel freeways, according to Richard Noonan, assistant chief of CHP’s Southern Division.

The system is composed of 3,062 telephones, roughly one every quarter of a mile. Noonan said CHP dispatchers receive 1,500 calls daily and more than 3,000 in bad weather.

Both San Diego and Orange counties are installing such systems under a program called SAFE, Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies. SAFE was set up by a 1985 state law that allows counties to impose a $1-per-vehicle annual fee to upgrade an existing system or establish a new one.