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No, that voice you heard wasn’t a call from the other side. It was emergency services calling to help thanks to Crash Detection on Apple Watch. That’s exactly what happened to a 55-year-old Apple Watch customer in Massachusetts after passing out while driving and ending up in his upside down car in someone’s pool.
Taylor Smith and Ryan Trowbridge for WGGB/WSHM tell the story of Brent Hill from Easthampton, MA:
It was a scary situation for Hill, who recalled suddenly feeling nauseous while driving home on December 16. That’s the last thing he remembered before completely blacking out. Based on a neighbor’s outdoor camera footage, Hill’s car was seen, a short time later, accelerating through his neighbor’s garage and landing upside down in their swimming pool. […]
While slowly coming back to consciousness, Hill said he recalled hearing a tiny voice speaking to him. While, at first, he thought it was a call from the other side, it turned out that the voice was coming from his Apple Watch. It was emergency services telling him that help was on the way.
It may not have been a voice from the other side, but it was a miraculous situation all the same. That’s because Crash Detection on Apple Watch worked as advertised when it phoned 911. Hill recalls what happened and how the watch came in clutch:
“It was that moment of panic when you realize you’re in a very bad situation. […] So the assumption is that when my weight shifted and my foot really hit that accelerator and no braking and I was just plowing right through. I didn’t know any of this was going on and, when I saw the footage of my car careening down the street and crashing, I was shocked because of how fast I was going.”
He credits Apple Watch with changing how the harrowing situation played out:
“If emergency services had not contacted me through that watch and just coached me through that, there’s no way I would’ve got out of there. I could barely hear anything outside. I knew there was commotion, but I could barely understand what they were saying. I didn’t know where I was and that person just kept me calm and, if that probably not have happened, I probably would have drowned.”
Read the full story here. Apple details how Crash Detection works in a support document here.
The event, which took place on December 16, reminds us how critical health and safety features on Apple Watch continuously prove to be for customers on a daily basis. Looking for a deal on a newer Apple Watch? You can grab the outgoing Apple Watch Series 9 for just $249 from Walmart while supplies last.
Apple Watch Series 10 introduces sleep apnea detection and a redesigned, thinner casing.
Crash Detection works on newer Apple Watch and iPhone models including:
- Apple Watch Series 8 and newer, Apple Watch Ultra and newer, and Apple Watch SE 2 and newer with watchOS 9 or later
- iPhone 14 and newer with iOS 16 or later
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