Connecting Stranded Motorists with
Available Help

The first of SAFE's two primary services is installing, maintaining and operating a system for motorist aid call boxes placed along the sides of freeways, state routes and selected county roads within San Diego County. The yellow boxes on steel poles with blue signs are a familiar sight to San Diego motorists. Free calls from these boxes quickly connect motoriststo a private Answer Center, where operators are trained to identify the problem and connect the motorist with whatever form of assistance is then available. Services include  changing flat tires and calling CHP for dispatch of rotational tow trucks (there is a cost to the motorist for the latter service). Since its beginnings in the late 1980s, San Diego SAFE have answered more than 2 million call box calls.

In 2007, the San Diego SAFE board authorized the second service, a complementary program called Mobile Call Box, in cooperation with the San Diego Association of Governments. At the time SANDAG was implementing its “511” transportation information number, so the two agencies developed a cooperative agreement allowing motorists to call 511 using a cell phone, ask for “roadside assistance” and be transferred to the same highly-experienced Answer Center that answers call box calls, and receive the same assistance. This unique approach to serving motorists has now been adopted by call box programs in all California major metropolitan areas.