The Turnpike’s Information Technology Department has installed 14 solar-powered cellular emergency call boxes on the Mon-Fayette Mason-Dixon Link, the new, seven-mile section that opened March 1 in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The bright yellow boxes allow Turnpike customers to pick up a handset, press the red button, and speak person-to-person with Operations Center staff.

"This is a pilot program to see how well these call boxes withstand the environment on the Pennsylvania Turnpike," said Director of Information Technology Robert Brown. "We also want to see how customers react to the new call boxes."

Brown said the Information Technology Department is considering a similar test on the mainline Turnpike with an additional 30 to 40 units.

If results of pilot tests are positive, and feedback from customers good, then the next step would be to begin looking at the system-wide upgrade of all existing call boxes.

Traditional call boxes limit motorists to a choice of four emergencies: service, police, medical and accident.

"When a stranded motorist presses the service button, we don’t know if it’s a compact car or a 50-ton truck broken down on the side of the roadway," said Director of Safety and Operations Joe McCool. "Our service providers — the garages, ambulances or fire companies — must arrive on scene before they can ascertain if any additional equipment is called for."

The solar-powered cellular emergency call boxes virtually eliminate this guessing game.

"With the new cellular call boxes, we can learn more about a particular incident by conversing directly with a person at the scene," said McCool. "This allows us to respond faster with the appropriate personnel and equipment."

McCool added that the new devices will also help reduce the number of false calls and incidents where help arrives at the scene but the caller is gone upon arrival. The boxes can also reduce the unnecessary dispatch of police, fire, and ambulance.

"Occasionally, for whatever reason, a customer with a flat tire will walk up to one of our call boxes and press all four emergency buttons — service, police, medical and accident," McCool said. "We have to assume the worst, and dispatch all these services to the scene of a flat tire — needlessly tying up these valuable resources."

Another benefit of the cellular boxes is they provide more detailed information to the Operations Center via a dedicated computer, eliminating the need for operators to rely on distressed callers to pinpoint the exact location and other pertinent facts about the scene. The answer center computer provides our dispatchers with details such as the milepost, date and time of the call, map location, a description of the physical location and nearby access points.

Brown praised the solar-powered cellular emergency call boxes as another example of the Turnpike deploying technology to benefit the customer. "These boxes supply a comforting link to a real human being during a time of crisis for stranded, ill or injured motorists," he said.

Comarco Wireless Technologies, of Irvine, California, is the vendor selected to manufacture and install the call boxes. The company operates more than 20,000 call boxes throughout the nation, 16,000 of them in California.