>
A woman’s brand new iPhone 14 last month alerted Ohio police that she’d been in a serious car accident and was unresponsive — when in reality, she was just enjoying a roller coaster ride.
Sara White, 39, and her family were on a day trip to Kings Island, an amusement park outside of Cincinnati, last month when she decided to brave the Mystic Timbers roller coaster.
The dentist kept her two-day-old phone in her fanny pack, the… Wall Street Journal reports, as she was lifted 109 feet into the air and spun at more than 80 km/h.
But unbeknownst to her at the time, her iPhone’s new car accident detection feature picked up on the sudden acceleration and braking behavior and assumed she’d been in a devastating accident.
It then called 911 and told Warren County Communications Center coordinators in an automated message, “The owner of this iPhone was in a serious accident and is not responding to their phone.”
That message was repeated seven times during the nearly two-minute conversation, picking up some ambient noise from background screaming and music.
By the time White got out, she found that her lock screen was filled with missed calls and voicemails from an emergency center asking if she was okay.
When she again failed to respond, officers were sent to the roller coaster, but they found no emergency.
Finally, ironically, while queuing for bumper cars, White realized what had happened and called the police back to report that she was okay.
Sara White was on the Mystic Timbers roller coaster in King’s Island, outside Cincinnati, when her iPhone’s crash-detection function called 911.
It was just one of six fake iPhone crash detection calls that the Warren County Communications Center has received from the Kings Island theme park since the new iPhone 14 models hit the market in September.
Similar warnings have also been triggered by the Joker roller coaster at Six Flags Great America near Chicago, exhausting the resources of local law enforcement.
“We are very vigilant about phone calls,” said Melissa Bour, the director of emergency services for Warren County. ‘No call is not checked.
“You get used to calls that aren’t emergency, but it’s wear and tear from the dispatchers.”
The iPhone 14 features a new sensor with a high-G-force accelerometer that detects when the user has been in a car accident, such as ‘side impact, rear-end collision and rollover’
The new iPhone 14s features a sensor with a high-G force accelerometer that detects when the user has been in a car accident, such as “side, rear-end, and rollover.”
It looks for signs of a crash, including rapid deceleration or a sudden stop.
If it detects a crash, the phone will display a warning for 10 seconds before starting a 10-second countdown accompanied by an alarm sound.
If a user does not stop the alarm during those 10 seconds, the phone calls 911, relays a message, and relays location information.
An alert is also sent to anyone listed as an emergency contact.
The feature, called ‘crash detection’, is only activated when you are traveling in a vehicle.
An Apple spokesperson said the crash detection algorithms have been validated using more than 1 million hours of crash data, real-world driving and crash test labs.
He added that the feature is “extremely accurate at detecting severe crashes” and that the company has optimized it to help users and minimize false positives.
However, the spokesperson noted that Apple will continue to improve the feature.
But in the meantime, iPhone users have reported problems with the new technology.
On September 17, Douglas Sonders said he was cruising his motorcycle on New York City’s West Side Highway when his iPhone 14 Pro flew off the wheel.
He had assumed his phone was gone for good, so he and his friends drove to the Apple Store to get a new one.
Sonders was unaware at the time that his iPhone’s crash detection was activated, alerting emergency services and sending automated text messages to his mother and girlfriend.
‘I was scared to death. I thought of the worst,” said Gabrielle Kennedy, Sonders’ girlfriend.
“My best friend died in a car accident,” she added. “It brought me back there.”
His mother even left him a voicemail saying, “Douglas, have someone call me back ASAP! Please let me know if you’re okay.’
Similar incidents have been reported among users riding the Joker roller coaster at Six Flags Great America
Meanwhile, at Six Flags Great America, Marcus Nguyen heard the alarm go off on his iPhone 14 Pro as the Joker roller coaster ended.
“I was still tied up in the ride, and I couldn’t reach it,” he said. “Finally I was able to reach it before the countdown was over.”
Experts are now warning iPhone 14 users to leave their phone behind when going on a roller coaster because when it slows down, it can brake abruptly and trigger the crash-detection software.
Users can also disable the feature, which is automatically enabled on the new phones.
But in some cases it has proved useful.
Police were alerted last week at the scene of a tragic car accident in Lincoln, Nebraska after an iPhone 14 belonged to one of the victims called 911. All six people in the Honda Accord were killed in the crash
Jonathan Koch, 22, was one of the victims. They were all six in their early twenties, but police have not yet released the names of the others who died
Just last week, the new crash-detection feature alerted police in Lincoln, Nebraska, to a tragic wreck that killed all six young passengers in the vehicle.
Officers said the black Honda Accord they were driving collided with a tree, killing five men at the scene – while a 24-year-old woman was left in critical condition and later died at a nearby hospital.
Immediately after the crash, an iPhone 14 belonging to one of the passengers alerted the emergency services.
Thanks to the iPhone feature, first responders were notified of the incident, despite there being no other witnesses to what police have described as “the worst Lincoln crash in recent history.”
The 22-year-old driver has not been named.
The other victims were a 21-year-old, a 23-year-old and two 22-year-olds – including a man named Jonathan Koch.
It is unclear what caused the accident, but police say the group of friends were driving home at the time.