Maury County man’s iPhone contacts 911 after serious crash
MAURY COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – Cell phones are equal parts useful and distracting. However, for one man in Maury County, his cell phone saved his life.
After his car rolled into a creek, his iPhone’s “crash notification” software was able to dispatch crews to his exact location.
At first, the dispatch audio call sounds like any other. The dispatcher on the line asked for the location of the caller’s emergency. However, instead of someone talking back, it was the person’s cell phone giving the responder information.
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“The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash,” the cell phone said.
“Units respond[ed] immediately and locate a car that had flipped and ended up in a creek. It was a very scary situation. Luckily, the driver was able to get himself out. He was okay and he was transported immediately to the hospital,” said Savannah Maddison with the Maury County Fire Department.
The crash happened on Frye Road during the overnight hours. When crews arrived, they found the driver out of the vehicle on the roadway. Units checked for leaks and were able to collect a few of the driver’s items
“Your iPhone has the capability to recognize when you are going at a high rate of speed and you suddenly stop. So when that occurs, people will see an alert pop up on their phone that says that emergency services are being notified,” said Maddison.
The iPhone program works to detect severe car crashes, including front and side impacts, rear-end collisions, and rollovers. The alert comes from both iPhones and Apple watches.
“If you are unconscious in an incident and you are not able to call 911 for yourself, the fact that your iPhone is able to locate exactly where you are and dispatch emergency units to respond to you….seconds matter in these incidents,” Maddison said.
The system uses GPS and motion sensors in the phone to send the devices latitude and longitude coordinates.
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“So when we are trying to locate a vehicle, especially if the vehicle like last night is in a creek or in a heavily wooded area, it would not have been able to be seen from the road, and if we did not have that exact relative location, we would not have been able to find this individual,” Maddison said.
The Maury County Fire Department has been using the tool for about one year now, taking hundreds of calls from the notification system. The department described the program as “life-saving.”
“We see people entrapped in their vehicle; we see people that are not able to reach their phone after they’ve crashed. So having this technology is so incredibly amazing, knowing that people are going to get help even if they are not able to call our services,” she explained.
The department warns the alert system can be triggered even when you are not in a car accident. For example, your phone gets thrown to the ground while you’re riding a roller coaster.
The alert gives you 10 seconds to cut it off if you do not require help.
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