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:
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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.
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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:
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“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.”
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He credits Apple Watch with changing how the harrowing situation played out:
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“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.”
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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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