http://www.boston.com/dailynews/026/region/Disconnect_Northway_emergency_:.shtml

Disconnect: Northway emergency phones not working

By Associated Press, 1/26/2000 13:39

RAY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) Emergency phones along the Adirondack Northway have been out all year with a Y2K-related problem, and state police don't know when they will be repaired.

The decade-old emergency system consists of phones set up every two miles along a roughly 60 mile stretch of the highway in the Adirondack Park. When the phones worked, drivers in need of assistance could lift the receiver to be connected directly to state police's Troop B Headquarters in Ray Brook.

The phones stopped working with the new year because they weren't Y2K compliant, Lt. Donald Romanchuk of Troop B said Wednesday.

Col. Hanford Thomas, deputy superintendent for administration with state police, said the department is ''looking for an interim solution'' and hopes to make permanent changes in the system this year. He doesn't know what that will cost or how long it will be before the system is repaired.

State police do not specifically have money budgeted to fix the Northway phones, but Thomas said police could tap into their general repair fund, if necessary.

''January is not the best time for this to happen,'' he told the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh.

State police used to get 30 to 50 calls a month from people needing help, Troop B Communications Supervisor Sgt. Bradley Fletcher said. Some had been in accidents or had seen fires. Others had disabled cars. Some were just lost.

''Some people consider this high-wilderness area,'' Fletcher said. ''They are not used to seeing that many trees all in one place. Sometimes they get disoriented because they're not used to seeing exits so far apart.''

Fletcher said people with cellular phones don't have much use for the system. But there are numerous gaps in cell-phone coverage in the mountainous Adirondack region.

Romanchuk said state police officers have been patrolling the highway more often in the absence of working emergency phones.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), January 26, 2000

Answers

So much for the three-day "winter snowstorm" metaphor, and the reassurances that Y2K problems can be fixed in a matter of minutes. So this has gone on for 26 days so far, and nobody has a clue when it will be fixed.

Meanwhile, 1-2 people per day (30-50 per month) are discovering, to their great delight, that the highway phones are not working. I wonder if they had the sense to put "out of order" signs on all the phone units.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), January 26, 2000.

Thanks much for the post Homer. =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 26, 2000.

"...January is not the best time for this to happen..."

And, like, they didn't know that Y2K would hit in January???

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), January 26, 2000.

great post, homer

-- boop (leafyspurge@hotmail.com), January 26, 2000.

Having toured the Northway more than once, and in some of the more interesting weather NY has to offer, I gotta say that this is NOT just an inconvenience. This is the kind of glitch that has the capacity to kill.

(Consider your response at 2:30 AM on your way wherever with a broken car (no engine) in -20 F weather with a 30 or so mph breeze, and light to medium snow - which is a reasonable description of most nights on that highway)

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 26, 2000.

(Consider your response at 2:30 AM on your way wherever with a broken car (no engine) in -20 F weather with a 30 or so mph breeze, and light to medium snow - which is a reasonable description of most nights on that highway)

You forgot the fog. That's one of the most treacherous highways I've ever driven on. Makes you sort of long for a way of contacting someone else if you should break down ... like a 2m handheld?

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), January 26, 2000.