iPhone and Apple Watch Emergency SOS feature save woman, child after collision
After a horrifying collision with a drunk driver at a stoplight, a woman saved her life by calling for help with her Apple Watch with its SOS feature.
Kacie Anderson was stopped at a red light in late 2017 when her car was hit from the rear by a drunk driver. The car was launched by the force of the crash, and the occupants were buffeted until the vehicle came to a stop.
"The moment he hit us everything inside the car went airborne. My face took a horrible blow to the steering wheel, headrest, back to the steering wheel, and then to the window. I blacked out for about a minute and could not see. My eyes were wide open but all I saw was black," Anderson told Shape on Friday. "My hands flew around to feel for my phone and then I realized I had my watch on and commanded it to call 911."
The child in the car had only minor bruising and scrapes, presumably protected by the car seat. After extraction by paramedics, Anderson was discovered to have a severe concussion, brain swelling, and bulging disks from the accident -- with repercussions from the accident still being dealt with.
Apple's watchOS 3 brought with it the Emergency SOS feature. Anderson probably invoked it by holding the side button for six seconds, which then attempts to call emergency services either through the wireless connection on a Series 3 Apple Watch with LTE, or through a linked iPhone.
Kacie Anderson was stopped at a red light in late 2017 when her car was hit from the rear by a drunk driver. The car was launched by the force of the crash, and the occupants were buffeted until the vehicle came to a stop.
"The moment he hit us everything inside the car went airborne. My face took a horrible blow to the steering wheel, headrest, back to the steering wheel, and then to the window. I blacked out for about a minute and could not see. My eyes were wide open but all I saw was black," Anderson told Shape on Friday. "My hands flew around to feel for my phone and then I realized I had my watch on and commanded it to call 911."
The child in the car had only minor bruising and scrapes, presumably protected by the car seat. After extraction by paramedics, Anderson was discovered to have a severe concussion, brain swelling, and bulging disks from the accident -- with repercussions from the accident still being dealt with.
Apple's watchOS 3 brought with it the Emergency SOS feature. Anderson probably invoked it by holding the side button for six seconds, which then attempts to call emergency services either through the wireless connection on a Series 3 Apple Watch with LTE, or through a linked iPhone.
Comments
Not saying the accident wasn't severe, but thinking it might be a bit embellished.
However, in this case the reality is, unless her phone was destroyed in the accident, or buried under something blocking it's microphones, she could have likely just as easily "commanded" the phone to call 911 and it would have been just as effective, even if she couldn't actually locate it. That said, it wouldn't be that unreasonable for the phone to have been thrown from the vehicle, or thrown to the flow and buried under a backpack or something.
So yeah, for all those who said there was no need for a cellular radio in an Apple Watch, welcome to the real world.
It sounds like the steering wheel airbag didn’t deploy or failed to deploy effectively. Since the vehicle is relatively new, that suggests the later...
Airbags are designed to work in conjunction with the seatbelt. They’re not nearly as effective without it...
The article should have mentioned seatbelt use, the fact that it didn’t suggests it was written with a motivation. I.e. hey look at this smart lady who owns an Apple Watch. Rather than, hey look at this idiot who didn’t wear her seatbelt, suffered a bunch of unnecessary injuries, but at least the watch came in handy.
As someone who suffered through a Nissan Rogue as a loaner last year, I hope show bought something better.
"After extraction by paramedics, Anderson was discovered to have a severe concussion, brain swelling, and bulging disks from the accident -- with repercussions from the accident still being dealt with."
This was a serious accident that Anderson is still dealing with months after. The other car looks even worse than hers:
My wife and I were hit 22 years ago. We were stopped at a stop light and were rear-ended by a woman doing 30 MPH who didn't even both to brake. We were hit so hard that there was in impression of her license plate in our bumper. We were both wearing seat belts. Neither of us even suffered a bruise.
The damage to her car isn't even remotely as bad as our damage. And our car had far fewer safety features that modern cars (like hers) now have.
I don't doubt the importance of having a way of contacting help in case of emergency. I just doubt if, in this instance, her life was truly saved by having an Apple Watch.
She was hit from behind so her body wouldn't been pressed back into the seat first. Would the airbag then go off when she went forward? I've heard "experts" say yes and no to that question since this story first came to light over the weekend.
Even if it did prevent her from hitting the steering wheel on the rebound forward, the airbag is a one-time use device that deploys in milliseconds and is deflated immediately by design so it doesn't work like a bouncy castle, as I've read. If the car that hit here lunged forward again she could've still hit the steering wheel.
I don't know if she was wearing a seatbelt or not, but wearing one doesn't mean you won't hit the steering wheel. There are simply too many factors involved to make that assumption.
If she hadn't been wearing a seatbelt then her head would have kept trying to go through the steering wheel thus propelling her through the windscreen.
As bad as her injuries sound she is a good reason why you MUST ALWAYS wear your seatbelt. You'll still get smashed around but you'll still end up better off than if you didn't wear it.
Now if we can only get those idiot motorcyclists who refuse to wear the proper protective motorcycle gear to understand how much better off they are with it on then we'd start to see some real progress on the roads. I had a low speed (30km/h) crash and walked away from it with just a broken wrist. Having seen the impact to my full face helmet I concluded if I had been wearing an open faced helmet my face would have been exactly that - open.