The Crash Detection feature on the iPhone 14 was able to notify the police immediately after an early-morning crash occurred in Tasmania, getting help to the victim in minutes.
According to Australia ABC News, a four-wheel drive truck pulling horse floats collided with a tree stump in Tasmania at 1:45 am on Monday. Crash Detection alerted nearby police, who were able to arrive on the scene within eight minutes, even if the passenger was unconscious.
Five people aged between 14 and 20 were taken to hospital, and one person with serious injuries was airlifted to Melbourne by air ambulance. In an accident with life-threatening injuries, prompt assistance can make a big difference. “In a case where people lose consciousness in an accident like this, it must be something to alert police quickly,” said Tasmanian Police Superintendent Ruth Orr. Officers are also already in the area, which helps with response times.
Apple’s iPhone 14 model has only been out for four months, but its Crash Detection features have helped many accident victims, such as the Emergency SOS via Satellite function that can call the police in emergency situations where WiFi and cell service are unavailable.
Unfortunately, Crash Detection can also trigger false positives, which can be frustrating for emergency responders around amusement parks and ski resorts. In November, operators of Summit County in Utah said they had seen a large increase in unintentional 911 calls, and just this week, a report from Japanese News said that Nagano Kita-Alps Fire Department had received a total of 134 fake calls mainly triggered by Accident Detection, with the calls occurring between December 16 and January 23.
Japanese firefighters do not recommend turning off Crash Detection, despite the inconvenience. “This is an effective function in the event of a very serious accident, so we cannot ask the user to turn it off,” they said.
Apple has tweaked Crash Detection, optimizing it with the iOS 16.1.2 update to reduce false positives, but reports in December showed that 911 operators are still getting a number of accidental calls. Utah Summit County Sheriff Jamie FitzSimons said in December that Apple was aware of the issue, and more improvements were needed. “We’re in communication with Apple to get them to pay more attention to this, but it feels like we’re trying to turn a battleship into a bathtub,” said FitzSimons.
