Pieces of technology miraculously saving the lives of human beings is something that we have heard about before. Back in 2014, a Nokia Lumia 520 absorbed the impact from a bullet in a police shootout and a Samsung Galaxy Mega did the same during a civilian altercation. Then in 2017, Siri was credited for helping save a man's life after he was trapped in an explosion and used Siri voice commands to alert the authorities. Now, it appears that another recent advancement in Apple's software has saved the lives of a couple whose car fell 300 feet (91 meters) off a cliff.
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According to a detailed report by The Washington Post, Cloe Fields and Christian Zelada's Hyundai Elantra lost its grip on gravel on the side of the Angeles Crest Highway in California and crashed down into a canyon 300 feet deep. Luckily, the couple was not seriously injured. While Zelada pondered hiking through the forest to reach safety, Fields brainstormed about how to request external help in an area with no cellular service.
However, upon finding Field's iPhone 14 a few feet from the crash, they learned that the shattered-but-still-functioning device had already detected that they had been in an accident and was showing them an option to conduct an emergency call via SOS satellite services. After making this call, they were rescued via helicopter by local emergency services within 30 minutes.
Sgt. John Gilbert, the coordinator for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department's Montrose search-and-rescue team noted that they had received SOS calls from iPhone's emergency services a few times before but this is the first time that they had to kick off a search-and-rescue operation. The previous instances had involved accidental activation and a road accident that did not require their aid. Gilbert went on to say that:
When we have vehicles that go over the side, in that particular part of the roadway… we're normally dealing with a fatality. [Apple's technology is] going to be a game changer. There are many incidents where we’re an hour to an hour-and-a half behind the original emergency before we’re even notified.
Apple says on its website that the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro come with a satellite-powered emergency SOS service which is free for two years after the activation of either device. Additionally, they also include automatic crash detection which calls emergency services on your behalf if the hardware detects that you've been in a severe car accident or a fall and are unresponsive.
Source and image credits: The Washington Post
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