Miss-Delectable
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Hearing-impaired call boxes hard sell for some counties
Roadside lifelines for stranded motorists have become an albatross for San Bernardino County's transportation agency as it struggles to maintain call boxes along 1,706 miles of highways with limited funds.
Things got harder Thursday when advocates for the hearing impaired filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against San Bernardino, Riverside and seven other counties because their call boxes are not equipped with keyboards for disabled drivers.
The California Association of the Deaf and four hearing impaired people claim the boxes violate federal law by not providing equal access.
San Bernardino Associated Governments, the county's transportation agency also known as Sanbag, gets about $1.5 million a year from a $1 vehicle registration fee to pay for the phones.
It began upgrading 1,615 call boxes from analog to digital technology this year because the latter will soon become obsolete.
The $2.4 million fix will whittle Sanbag's call box reserves to about $350,000. The agency plans to spend about $1.6 million to retrofit the phones with keyboards for the hearing impaired, but it could take up to eight years to do that.
"We will be doing it as soon as we can generate the money for it," Sanbag spokeswoman Cheryl Donahue said.
Meanwhile, other more populous Southern California counties get so much from the $1 registration fee that they can offer free roadside assistance to stranded motorists in addition to phones.
For the past two years, San Diego County has paid $400,000 from its fund for a rescue and firefighting helicopter and still has about $12 million in reserve.
"I totally understand San Bernardino's situation," said Ken Coleman, who manages Los Angeles County's call box program. "You are in a Catch-22 because you have a huge amount of area to cover."
Jennifer Pesek, an attorney for the California Center for Law and the Deaf, agrees smaller counties are shortchanged on call box funding.
"It certainly would be more fair if it was a statewide issue," she said.
Thirty-four counties out of the state's 58 participate in the call box program.
Lawmakers could change the funding scheme set up in the law so all the counties can dip into the same pool of money. But getting the change would be a difficult battle, said Paul Biane, county supervisor and chairman of the Sanbag board of directors.
"Those larger, metro areas like San Diego County are going to fight for those dollars to stay in their counties," he said.
Pesek said counties named in the lawsuit have had several years to upgrade their call boxes for the hearing impaired.
"The problem that we had with a number of (counties) is that they said they would look into it, but nothing happened," she said.
Sanbag contends hearing impaired motorists can summon help with its roadside phones. The motorists tap on the receiver. This alerts an operator, who dispatches a California Highway Patrol officer.
"They are given top priority," Donahue said.
But Pesek said the system still isn't equitable.
What if the driver urgently needs an ambulance or firefighters? Tapping won't work, she said.
"It leaves the possibility that people could be in grave danger," she said.
San Bernardino and Riverside counties operate call box programs through the same call center.
Since February 2002, operators received two calls from hearing impaired motorists in Riverside County. Both occurred within the past five weeks, and each time CHP officers could not find the caller, Donahue said.
The CHP, which ran the program from 1987 to 2002, did not keep detailed caller statistics, Donahue said.
On average, about 40,000 people use call boxes each year in San Bernardino County. The numbers have dwindled over the years as cellular phones become commonplace.
Huh! The deaf should have their number and contact them via tty on their cellular phones or send text messages when emergency arise.
Roadside lifelines for stranded motorists have become an albatross for San Bernardino County's transportation agency as it struggles to maintain call boxes along 1,706 miles of highways with limited funds.
Things got harder Thursday when advocates for the hearing impaired filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against San Bernardino, Riverside and seven other counties because their call boxes are not equipped with keyboards for disabled drivers.
The California Association of the Deaf and four hearing impaired people claim the boxes violate federal law by not providing equal access.
San Bernardino Associated Governments, the county's transportation agency also known as Sanbag, gets about $1.5 million a year from a $1 vehicle registration fee to pay for the phones.
It began upgrading 1,615 call boxes from analog to digital technology this year because the latter will soon become obsolete.
The $2.4 million fix will whittle Sanbag's call box reserves to about $350,000. The agency plans to spend about $1.6 million to retrofit the phones with keyboards for the hearing impaired, but it could take up to eight years to do that.
"We will be doing it as soon as we can generate the money for it," Sanbag spokeswoman Cheryl Donahue said.
Meanwhile, other more populous Southern California counties get so much from the $1 registration fee that they can offer free roadside assistance to stranded motorists in addition to phones.
For the past two years, San Diego County has paid $400,000 from its fund for a rescue and firefighting helicopter and still has about $12 million in reserve.
"I totally understand San Bernardino's situation," said Ken Coleman, who manages Los Angeles County's call box program. "You are in a Catch-22 because you have a huge amount of area to cover."
Jennifer Pesek, an attorney for the California Center for Law and the Deaf, agrees smaller counties are shortchanged on call box funding.
"It certainly would be more fair if it was a statewide issue," she said.
Thirty-four counties out of the state's 58 participate in the call box program.
Lawmakers could change the funding scheme set up in the law so all the counties can dip into the same pool of money. But getting the change would be a difficult battle, said Paul Biane, county supervisor and chairman of the Sanbag board of directors.
"Those larger, metro areas like San Diego County are going to fight for those dollars to stay in their counties," he said.
Pesek said counties named in the lawsuit have had several years to upgrade their call boxes for the hearing impaired.
"The problem that we had with a number of (counties) is that they said they would look into it, but nothing happened," she said.
Sanbag contends hearing impaired motorists can summon help with its roadside phones. The motorists tap on the receiver. This alerts an operator, who dispatches a California Highway Patrol officer.
"They are given top priority," Donahue said.
But Pesek said the system still isn't equitable.
What if the driver urgently needs an ambulance or firefighters? Tapping won't work, she said.
"It leaves the possibility that people could be in grave danger," she said.
San Bernardino and Riverside counties operate call box programs through the same call center.
Since February 2002, operators received two calls from hearing impaired motorists in Riverside County. Both occurred within the past five weeks, and each time CHP officers could not find the caller, Donahue said.
The CHP, which ran the program from 1987 to 2002, did not keep detailed caller statistics, Donahue said.
On average, about 40,000 people use call boxes each year in San Bernardino County. The numbers have dwindled over the years as cellular phones become commonplace.
Huh! The deaf should have their number and contact them via tty on their cellular phones or send text messages when emergency arise.