The subject’s iPhone sent an automated message to Florida authorities after he was in an accident. He was immobilized and with signs of hypothermia.
A man was driving on a Florida highway at night when he lost control of his car after avoiding an animal on the road. The vehicle overturned in a nearby canal and he was trapped. His iPhone saved him, an officer said Thursday.
Agents in Martin County (east) received a call Tuesday night with an automated message, said the local sheriff’s office chief assistant, John Budensiek.
“The owner of this iPhone was in a serious car accident and is not answering the phone. The emergency location is latitude 27.1195, longitude – 80.481, with an estimated search radius of seven meters,” the looping message said.
When they went to the indicated place, near the rural town of Indiantown, the agents found the vehicle overturned in the water and its driver, a 38-year-old man, immobilized and with signs of hypothermia.
Thanks to Apple technology
The saving call came from a new technology on his cell phone, an iPhone 14 . Apple’s latest model is capable of detecting traffic accidents and sending an audio message to the emergency services with the coordinates of the accident, if the owner does not cancel this function within 20 seconds.
“That man was alone, his car was submerged,” Officer Budensiek said. “And if that phone hadn’t made that call for him, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have been located until dawn five hours later.”
“Things would have happened to him without that call,” added the sheriff’s chief assistant, who recalled that hypothermia can be fatal.
“And we’re in South Florida , so there are animals in those channels — there are alligators, snakes, and different things that can also be a hazard on top of what was already going on,” he said.
The agents managed to get the driver out of the vehicle, who was taken to a hospital, where he received care for minor injuries.