SACRAMENTO – Emergency call boxes on the American River Parkway and another bicycle trail are out of commission, but officials promise they will operate soon with the latest technology.
The emergency phones along the parkway are being retrofitted with digital technology, replacing the analog innards of the yellow boxes. They were supposed to be fixed already but a couple of retrofitting problems have delayed the upgrade.
It looks like the boxes will be working by April 1 – no fooling.
The boxes have not been working for about three weeks. There are 37 on the American River Parkway from Discovery Park to Folsom Lake, and eight on the Sacramento Northern Trail from about Del Paso Boulevard to Elverta Road.
They have a receiver inside the box and a button to push to connect the parkway user to the appropriate police agency. Most calls are then transferred to county park rangers.
If a major crime is reported, police agencies respond.
Even with the popularity of cell phones, the county believes it is important to keep the phones working.
"We don't get a lot of calls from the boxes," said Chief Park Ranger Steve Flannery. "It is more common to get calls from personal cell phones, but there have been a couple of bike accidents where the call boxes came in pretty handy."
– Bill Lindelof
