An emergency telephone is a phone specifically provided for making calls to emergency services and is most often found in a place of special danger or where it is likely that there will only be a need to make emergency calls.
Emergency telephones are commonly found alongside major roads and on university campuses throughout the world. In the United Kingdom, orange "SOS" call boxes are spaced at 1 mile (1.6 km) intervals on all motorways as well as some major "A" roads, with roadside markers indicating the nearer phone. Emergency telephones were installed at .25 miles (400 m) intervals on all limited-access highways ("Freeways") throughout Southern California in the United States as far back as the 1970s. On Italian "Autostrade" ("Motorways"), "SOS" emergency phones, generally coloured in yellow, are found spaced at 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) intervals.
Emergency phones can also be found at the ends of bridges or near cliffs which have a history of suicides. These are generally routed directly to appropriate support agencies such as The Samaritans in the UK.
They are also occasionally found along the coastline where members of the public may wish to report swimmers or boats in danger at sea. In the UK such phones connect directly to the Coastguard.
In some countries, they are also found in places where people may feel vulnerable or unsafe at night. They are commonly found on university campuses. These are generally linked to security companies who patrol the streets where the phones are located.
As cell phone use continues to increase, the need for emergency telephones declines and they are being phased out in many cities. However, they are likely remain vital for safety in areas with poor cell phone coverage and in places of high suicide risk.
These telephones are almost always marked by a placard or sign indicating a unique serial number or identifier which allows the authorities to know exactly where the caller is - even if the caller does not know - by having the caller read the short identifier from the placard over the telephone. Some phones are equipped with the equivalent of caller id and the agent receiving the call can identify the location even if the caller cannot. In most U.S. states with roadside call boxes, the call box placard has the route's milepost reading. In California, call boxes are identified by their mileage through individual counties using postmiles for reference. Each box has a 2-letter identifier for the county, followed by the route number, then a 3 or 4 digit number corresponding to the route's postmileage in tenths of miles.
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