Man Saved After iPhone 14’s Life-Saving Feature Activates Following Car Plunge Off Cliff
According to a report by CBS News via MacRumors, the recently released iPhone 14 series has once again demonstrated its life-saving capabilities with its new safety-focused features such as crash detection and Emergency SOS via satellite. These features played a crucial role in helping authorities locate a man who had unintentionally driven his vehicle off a cliff in Los Angeles, resulting in a 400-foot plunge into a nearby canyon.
According to CBS News, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Crescenta Valley Station received a message from an iPhone communications center around 10:30 p.m. alerting them to Mt. of a crash on Wilson Road in Los Angeles.
RESCUE: At 10:51pm on Fri we were alerted to a car 400’ over a cliff by the driver’s iPhone 14 crash detection. Location was Mt Wilson Rd. After locating him we guided in an @LACoFireAirOps copter. Suffered head trauma. @LASDHQ @CVLASD @KCBSKCALDesk @NBCLA @ABC7 @FOXLA @cnnbrk pic.twitter.com/jXdpuDL7Hk— Mike Leum (@Resqman) July 22, 2023
When the rescue team arrived near the accident site, they heard a man screaming for help. They were eventually able to locate the vehicle about 400 feet below the road.
One of the rescuers, Mike Leum, said the man was bleeding from the head when they found him and his car was completely destroyed.
“I think if we didn’t have good location information in time, he probably would have bled out,” Leumin told CBS News.
Rescue team leader Steve Goldsworthy said, “The location we got from activating the iPhone was spot on” and that “It was basically her phone calling for help on her behalf.”
Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite and crash detection — iPhone features responsible for alerting authorities — were first introduced with the iPhone 14 series in September 2022.
In a related story, a woman who broke her leg while hiking in Tujunga in June was able to use the iPhone 14’s emergency call function via satellite to contact emergency services, even though she was in a remote location without cell phone service. This is because the feature does not require cellular service.
