Emergency roadside call boxes gone by 2017

Minister Melanie Schultz has told Parliament that the emergency roadside call boxes next to highways and provincial roads will definitely be a thing of the past per the 1st of July 2017. 

According to research from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and the Royal Netherlands Tourism Bond (ANWB), there is no longer any use for the call boxes. This research was requested by the CDA.

People use mobile phones to call the emergency services at roadsides now. Modern alarm systems in cars also make the call boxes useless. It is also safer for drivers not to have to get out of the car to reach a call box anymore.

Minister Schultz says that the ANWB and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment have to ensure that the public is sufficiently prepared for the disappearance in 2017 of the yellow structures that have been a feature of the roads since the 70s.

According to the NOS, the boxes will be removed earlier than 2017 if it appears that they are used less than 30,000 times a year. In 2012, the boxes were used around 39,000 times, which made up 2.5 percent of all emergency calls made that year.